Numerous other signs are connected with Royalty. Thus we have two

examples of the ALBERT, one of the ROYAL ALBERT, one of the ALBERT

HOUSE, one of the KING OF PRUSSIA (formerly a very common sign), one of

the QUEEN ADELAIDE (which is at least forty years old), one of the QUEEN

ELIZABETH, four of the PRINCE ALFRED, one of the DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE, two

of the DUKE OF EDINBURGH (neither of which existed twenty years ago),

one of the CLARENCE (of course commemorating the DUKE OF CLARENCE,

afterwards King William IV.), three of the DUKE OF YORK (probably

commemorating the second son of George III., who died in 1827, though

one or more of the earlier Dukes of York may also be intended), five of

the ROYAL INN, one of the QUEEN, one of the QUEEN VICTORIA, ten of the

VICTORIA, one of the ROYAL SOVEREIGN, one of the ROYAL ARMS, one of the

ROYAL FOREST HOTEL, one ROYAL STEAMER, one ROYAL ESSEX ARMS, five of the

ROYAL HOTEL, eighteen of the ROYAL OAK, one of the OLD ROYAL OAK, one of

the KING’S OAK, four of the ROYAL STANDARD, three of the QUEEN’S ARMS,

nineteen of the QUEEN’S HEAD, seventeen of the KING’S ARMS, forty-nine

of the KING’S HEAD, one of the OLD KING’S HEAD, twelve of the PRINCE OF

WALES, one of the PRINCESS OF WALES, one of the PRINCE ALBERT VICTOR,

one of the PRINCESS ALICE, two of the PRINCESS ALEXANDRA, one of WILLIAM

THE CONQUEROR (at Widdington), two of WILLIAM THE FOURTH, and two of

KING WILLIAM THE FOURTH, one of which is placed at a “four-want-way” at

Leaden Roothing, and forms a landmark well known to every one who rides

to hounds or travels by road in “The Roothings.” The KING WILLIAM and

the KING WILLIAM IV. are both common beer-house signs, probably because

the act authorizing the opening of these houses was passed in his reign.

The beer-retailers of the time, when casting about for a sign,

naturally selected the sovereign of their day. In the first form the

sign occurs at Bocking, Springfield, &c., and under the latter at

Braintree, Chigwell, and elsewhere. The PRINCE OF WALES, too, is a very

common beer-house sign, as also the VICTORIA, the QUEEN VICTORIA, the

QUEEN’S HEAD, and the QUEEN’S ARMS. PRINCE ALFRED is commemorated on a

beer-house sign at Chigwell. At the same place is a BRITISH QUEEN

(beer-house), by which probably is intended Queen Boadicea, who received

her last overthrow in the neighbourhood. The PRINCE OF ORANGE still

figures as a beer-house sign at Chelmsford. The sign of PRINCE OF WALES’

HEAD existed at Harwich in 1764, as it is mentioned in a number of the

_Chelmsford Chronicle_ for that year; and a ROYAL MORTAR (whatever that

might be) was to be seen at Colchester twenty years ago. Messrs. Larwood

and Hotten mention the strange sign of the *THREE QUEENS, which was,

until lately, to be seen at Moulsham. They surmise that it was suggested

by the common sign of the THREE KINGS, of which we have no example in

Essex, unless the THREE TRAVELLERS, which occurs near Romford, and is

apparently unique, be another form of it. The three kings represent the

three wise men or Magi from the East. A writer in _Notes and Queries_

(1st Series, vol. viii. p. 627) says that the following rhyme was

formerly appended to the sign of a VICTORIA beer-shop at Coopersale:--

“The Queen some day

May pass this way

And see our Tom and Jerry;[86]

Perhaps she’ll stop

And stand a drop

To make her subjects merry.”

On the other side of the sign-board were some different lines which the

writer had forgotten.

The sign of the KING’S HEAD is by no means of modern introduction. It

occurs on the seventeenth century tokens of Robert Adson of Colchester

in 1668, of Thomas Bribrist of Felstead (no date), and of Thomas

Livermer of Wethersfield, and it is mentioned in advertisements in the

_Chelmsford Chronicle_ for March 10, 1787, as then occurring at

Prittlewell and Stebbing. As the sign still exists at all these places,

except Felstead and Wethersfield, it is at least probable that the same

houses which were known by it in the seventeenth and eighteenth

centuries are known by it now. The famous KING’S HEAD, opposite the

church at Chigwell, so well described by Dickens in _Barnaby Rudge_

under the name of the MAYPOLE, has been already spoken of (p. 113). It

is a long, large, plastered building, with many gables, and projecting

upper storeys--evidently dating from the era of the Stuarts or earlier.

Arthur Young, in 1771, declares that “of all the cursed roads that ever

disgraced this kingdom in the very ages of barbarism, none ever equalled

that from Billericay to the KING’S HEAD at Tilbury.” In 1678 a KING’S

HEAD at Rickling formed a house of call for Poor Robin on his

_Perambulation from Saffron Walden to London_. After recounting how he

fared at the BLACK BULL at Newport, he says--

“We having dined and joined a pint or two,

Then forwards on my journey I did go;

And first came unto a town called Rickling,

Where for to stay I made no stickling,

But presently at the King’s Head fell a tippling,

Where of Compounding Dick[87] I there heard tell.”

The KING’S HEAD on the Balkern Hill, Colchester, is an ancient and

memorable inn, though the present house is not very old. At the time of

the surrender of the town to Fairfax, in 1648, it was a general

_rendezvous_ of the noblemen and gentry of the Royalist party. Foxe,

too, in his _Book of Martyrs_ mentions that “at the KINGE’S HEAD in

Colchester, and at other innes in the sayd towne, the afflicted

Christians had set places appointed for themselves to meet at.” Mr. H.

W. King has kindly informed the author that the KING’S HEAD, now

existing at Leigh, is not the same house as one which existed there

under the same name in the eighteenth century. The latter is traceable

(writes Mr. King) as a private house from 1671 to about 1720, being

described in 1702 as a “messuage and shop.” Between 1718 and 1723 it was

rebuilt, as in the latter year it is spoken of as a new house, and is

described as an inn with the sign of the QUEEN’S HEAD. In 1740 it is

described as “the ANGEL, heretofore the QUEEN’S HEAD.” In 1766 it is

described as “the KING’S HEAD, heretofore the QUEEN’S HEAD, afterwards

the ANGEL.” It then became a private house, as it has ever since

remained. It was probably soon after this, about 1766, that the present

KING’S HEAD at Leigh assumed that name. These three changes, all within

the short space of fifty years, or less, are very interesting. They seem

to suggest that the house was first named the QUEEN’S HEAD in honour of

Queen Anne; but that, when she died in 1714, the same sign (perhaps

slightly altered) was made to do duty for some time as an ANGEL, and

still later was changed to the KING’S HEAD, probably on the accession of

one of the Georges. At Harold Wood there is a KING HAROLD, which is no

doubt connected with the name of the place. At Nazing, which was one of

the estates with which Harold endowed the neighbouring Abbey of Waltham,

there has been for at least a century past a KING HAROLD’S HEAD.

The GEORGE, which occurs seventeen times in Essex, is another royal

sign. In some instances it doubtless represents St. George, our patron

saint, disconnected from his dragon; but, more probably, it has usually

been set up--at least, of late--in honour of our Hanoverian kings. There

is, however, abundant evidence that even as early as the very beginning

of the seventeenth century, St. George, the Patron Saint of England, had

already appeared on the sign-board without his usual antagonist the

Dragon. Thus, “Blague, the merry host of the GEORGE at Waltham,” figures

prominently in _The Merry Divel of Edmonton_, published in 1617--a

curious play, which Kirkman attributed to Shakespeare. The scene is

partly laid in Waltham Forest. Poor Robin, too, in his _Perambulation_

also mentions a GEORGE at Bishops Stortford in 1678. Mr. H. W. King also

finds evidence in ancient deeds that the GEORGE at Leigh was an inn as

early as 1680, but the house itself is probably somewhat earlier. In

1777 it is described as “now and for some time past known as the sign of

the George.” It had ceased to be an inn by 1801, though then and long

afterwards described as “a messuage called the George,” the words “known

by the sign of” being omitted. It was also a brewery. Mr. King also

finds evidence in other ancient deeds of the existence of a GEORGE at

Rayleigh in 1623, but whether an inn, shop, or private house, does not

appear. The *GEORGE at Epping (perhaps identical with the GEORGE AND

DRAGON which now occurs there) is mentioned in the _Chelmsford

Chronicle_ in 1764; while the GEORGE at Halstead and the *GEORGE at

Witham (perhaps both identical with the well-known houses now existing

under the same name at each of those places) are frequently referred to

in advertisements in the same paper for 1786, the latter as being then

to let. A small stone slab, let into the front of the GEORGE AND DRAGON

Inn at Wanstead, bears the following inscription:--

“_Restorat._ 1858. R. C.--In memory of y^{e} Cherrey Pey as cost ½

a Guiney, y^{e} 17th of July, 1752.

That day we had good cheer,

I hope to so do many a year.--David Jersey.”

The GEORGE AND DRAGON also occurs eight times elsewhere in the county,

as well as on several beer-house signs. At Chelmsford there is an OLD

GEORGE (beer-house). Mr. H. W. King also finds mention in early deeds of

a house known as the GEORGE AND TANKARD at Shopland in 1579. It is not

stated that it was an inn, but from the sign there can be very little

doubt that it was. The appearance of an apparently impaled sign at so

early a date is certainly very remarkable. Larwood and Hotten do not

notice this device.

Various military signs occur at places where there are barracks. For

instance, there are at Colchester houses with such signs as the BUGLE

HORN, the ARTILLERY-MAN, the RIFLEMAN, the DRAGOON, the *FENCERS (a sign

which is at least forty years old, though it is not mentioned by

Larwood

[Illustration: GRENADIER.]

and Hotten), an ORDNANCE ARMS, and a ROYAL ARTILLERY; whilst at Great

Warley there is a HORSE ARTILLERY and a SOLDIER’S HOTEL, which seems to

have been the SOLDIER’S HOPE forty years ago. At Waltham Abbey there is

a VOLUNTEER; there are RIFLEMEN at Colchester and Black Notley

(beer-house); at Kelvedon Hatch there is a GUARDSMAN, at Rettendon a

LIFE GUARDS, and at Leyton a GRENADIER. The figure of a Grenadier, here

reproduced, is taken from the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for December, 1845

(p. 591), to which it was contributed by the late Mr. J. A. Repton,

F.S.A., formerly of Springfield. A SOLDIER is represented on three

different farthing tokens issued by John Allen of Braintree, one of

which bears the date 1657. All bear his initials, but one has the

inscription, “Turne a penny,” in the place of the name of the issuer. On

these tokens the orthography is decidedly peculiar. Thus, Braintree is

twice spelled “Brantre” and once “Brantry,” while Essex is twice spelled

“Esex” and once “Esaxes.”

Among the more miscellaneous of Human Signs we meet with a CROWN’S INN

at Ongar, a FORESTER at Coggeshall, a FORESTER’S INN at Plaistow, an

ANCIENT FORESTERS at Hatfield Broad Oak (all, of course, connected with

the “ancient order”), three FREEMASONS’ TAVERNS, several FREEMASONS’

ARMS, a MERRY FIDDLERS at Theydon Garnon, eight examples of the

CRICKETERS (against five in 1862), two of the CRICKETERS’ ARMS, a JOLLY

CRICKETERS, a JOLLY FISHERMAN, a JOLLY SAILOR, a SAILOR’S RETURN, two

WELCOME SAILORS, an OLD WELCOME SAILOR, a THREE TRAVELLERS (perhaps

representing the three wise men from the East), and a MINERVA at

Southend, which, as Mr. H. W. King has ascertained, was recently

christened by its owner after a barge of the same name that he

possessed. At Chigwell there has been for at least a century past a

house with the sign of the THREE JOLLY WHEELERS (whatever they might

be). There are TRAVELLERS’ FRIENDS at Moulsham and Woodford Wells (the

former being at least forty years old), as well as a beer-house of the

same name at Epping; TRAVELLERS’ RESTS at Forest Gate and Wethersfield

(the latter being a beer-house); BRITANNIAS at Canning Town, Barking,

Southend, and Hornchurch (beer-house); and TWO BREWERS at *Stratford,

Springfield, High Ongar, and Chigwell (beer-house). This is a sign once

common, but now becoming rare. They were usually represented carrying a

barrel of beer between them, slung on a pole. There are WOODMEN at

Halstead, Elmdon, Waltham Abbey, Stanford Rivers, Thundersley, Romford,

&c., all but the first two being beer-houses. The THREE MARINERS is an

odd sign which occurs at Colchester and at Moulsham (Chelmsford). At the

latter place it seems to have existed for at least a century, being

referred to in the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for January 27, 1786. In the

garden of the ADAM AND EVE at West Ham (p. 37) stands the remains of an

old stone arch, now almost the only remaining portion of the ancient

abbey of Stratford Langthorn. In the kitchen are (or were lately) a

coffin, a seal, some coins, and some urns dug up in an adjoining field

towards the end of last century. The ESSEX HEAD, in Essex Street,

Strand, London, W.C., probably commemorates the Earl of Essex, who was a

favourite of Queen Elizabeth, rather than the county of that name. It

clearly either takes its name from, or gives its name to, the street in

which it stands. The inn was established in the last century. On the

Forest, near High Beech, is a beer-shop known as the DICK TURPIN’S CAVE.

It clearly takes its name from a hole in the ground not far distant,

commonly spoken of as “Dick Turpin’s Cave.” The “cave” (if such it ever

was) is now thickly overgrown with trees and brushwood. It is well known

that Messrs. Dick Turpin and Co. especially haunted the neighbourhood of

Epping and Hainault Forests, and until the end of last century it was

not considered safe to traverse the roads thereabouts unless well armed.

It may very well be, therefore, that the famous highwayman did, at some

time or other, use this hole as a place of refuge.

The HERCULES at Newport (the only example in Essex of this rather

uncommon sign) has already been mentioned (p. 65), also the tradition

that the BULL, which stood opposite to it, was by it compelled to close

its doors. With regard to this inn Mr. C. K. Probert of Newport sends an

interesting note. He says:

“The HERCULES stands next to the old Vicarage. Now we know it was a

common custom among village clergymen to take their pipe and pot at

the village inn, as mentioned in the old song, which says:

‘At the sign of the Horse,

Old Spintext, of course,

Each night takes his pipe and his pot,

O’er a Jorum of “nappy,”

Contented and happy,

There sits this canonical sot,’ &c., &c.

Further, it is my belief that the HERCULES was started in

opposition to the BULL, our Pastor (being the most learned

individual in the place at the period) probably suggesting the

classical name, in reference to the seventh labour of Hercules--the

slaying of the Cretan Bull.”

Forty years ago there existed at Colchester a MALTSTER’S INN, a

MARINER’S INN, and a NEPTUNE; at Stratford a CHINAMAN, and at Tendring a

CROWN AND BLACKSMITH, the latter being, perhaps, an impaled sign

signifying that the landlord of the CROWN was also a blacksmith.

It will be most convenient to treat of the sign of the ANGEL, which

occurs eleven times in Essex, among Human Signs, although an angel is

commonly accounted to be something more than human. An ANGEL occurs on

the seventeenth-century tokens of “Francis Aleyn at the Angell in

Brentwood,” of “Georg Silke at the Angell in Rvmford,” of Francis Dilke,

also of Rumford, of William Hartley of Colchester, and of George Taylor

of Ilford in 1665. As the sign still exists at the two last-named

places, the probabilities are that the two houses bearing it are

identical with those from which the tokens were issued a couple of

centuries ago. The ANGEL at Ilford was formerly a posting-house of great

importance; but, like its neighbour, the RED LION, and all the other

once-busy inns on this great highway from London into the Eastern

counties, it is now sadly decayed from its old importance, though still

a house of high standing. Its massive sign-post and ornamental sign-iron

date from at least a century ago. Probably it was at this house that, on

August 18, 1662, Pepys, “while dinner was getting ready, practised

measuring of the tables and other things, till [as he says] I did

understand measure of timber and board very well.” This he did that he

might know how to detect fraud on the part of those who bought timber

for the navy. Taylor (see p. 28) in 1636 mentions ANGELS at Romford and

Brentwood, which do not now exist. The *ANGEL in the High Street at

Colchester is, perhaps, the modern representative of the ANGEL mentioned

in one of the Corporation records (see p. 62) as being an “auncyent

inne” in 1603. There are beer-houses with the same sign at Braintree,

Bocking, and elsewhere. In the Corporation records of Saffron Walden for

the year 1645 it appears that the sum of 6s. 2d. was expended upon “a

pottle of sack, 3 qts. of claret and white wine burnt, for the

committee, when they sat at the ANGEL.” This is probably the same house

which continued to exist in Gould Street up to about fifty years ago,

when it was kept by one Butterfield, who was also a barber, and who

displayed the following rhyme upon his sign-board:

“Rove not from pole to pole, but call in here,

Where nought exceeds the shaving, but the beer.”

The pole referred to is, of course, the barber’s pole. The couplet was,

however, not original. The ANGEL, which still continues to exist at

Kelvedon, is referred to in an advertisement in the _Chelmsford

Chronicle_ for December 29, 1786. It is also stated in the Bufton

MSS.[88] that on the 20th of October, 1692, King William III. “stayed

and dined at the ANGELL,” at Kelvedon. Doubtless he was on his way to

Holland, _viâ_ Harwich. Larwood and Hotten say (p. 266) that this sign

“was derived from the Salutation; for, that it originally represented

the Angel appearing to the Holy Virgin at the Salutation or

Annunciation, is evident from the fact that, even as late as the

seventeenth century, on nearly all the trades-tokens of houses with this

sign, the Angel is represented with a scroll in his hands; and this

scroll we know, from the evidence of paintings and prints, to contain

the words addressed by the Angel to the Holy Virgin: _‘Ave Maria, gratia

plena, Dominus tecum_.’ Probably at the Reformation it was considered

too Catholic a sign, and so the Holy Virgin was left out, and the Angel

only retained.” The supporters of the arms of Richard II. were also two

angels, blowing trumpets. The ANGEL AND HARP at Church End, Dunmow, is a

strange sign which does not appear to be noticed by the authors so often

quoted. Probably it is a modern, though by no means inappropriate,

impalement, as it appears in the list of sixty years ago simply as the

*HARP.

The sign of the BLACK BOY occurs seven times in the county, namely, at

Chelmsford, Wrabness, Bocking, Weeley, *Coggeshall, Wivenhoe, and Great

Bromley. At the latter place it seems to have existed since 1786, as a

sale is advertised to take place at the BLACK BOY in Great Bromley, in

the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for March 3rd in that year. There is also a

beer-house of this name at Danbury, and the large brick house in the

High Street at Epping, lately occupied by that eminent naturalist, Henry

Doubleday, was an inn with this sign before the Doubleday family

acquired it about 1770. The BLACK BOY now existing at Chelmsford is not

the same house that went under that name during the last and previous

centuries, though standing on the same site. The old inn ranked as a

coaching-inn of the first importance. It was pulled down in 1857, having

been fairly run off the road by the opening of the railway in 1843. Two

wooden bosses, taken from the ceiling of one of the rooms, and now to be

seen in the Chelmsford Museum, are carved, respectively, with the Blue

Boar of the De Veres (to which family the house probably once belonged),

and the red and white rose combined. Mr. John Adey Repton, F.S.A.,

formerly of Springfield, writing to the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ in May,

1840, sends sketches of these two bosses, which were duly inserted. He

says:

“There is a tradition that Richard III. was hunting in the forest,

and being missed by his courtiers was afterwards found at this

house.... The beam is massive, being not less than 16 inches wide.

The room, although only 9½ feet high, was originally a hall 28½

feet long, but subsequently reduced to 18½ feet by a partition,

leaving a passage to the inn. Yet this partition, from the style

and character of the panels, appears to have been added so early as

the reign of Henry VIII. The doors to the buttery-hatch, &c., may

still be traced on the wall of the passage.”

Writing again to the same Magazine in December, 1845, Mr. Repton says:

“I send you a sketch of a Chambermaid. The figure is now at the

White Hart, Chelmsford, having been recently removed thither from

the Black Boy. It was formerly the custom in ancient family

mansions to introduce a painting which represents a housemaid

holding a broom in her hands, which was cut out of a board, and

generally placed in a passage or at the top of the stairs. The

earliest specimens I have seen are of the date of Charles I., or

the early part of Charles II.... The enclosed specimen is of a

later period, having the Fontaine head-dress which prevailed about

the time of William III. or Queen Anne.... Sometimes the figure of

a soldier, like a sentry, was exhibited in like manner.... Such a

figure is on the staircase of the Bull at Dartford. Another, of

which I send you a sketch [see p. 129], is at the Black Boy in

Chelmsford.”

Mr. Chancellor of Chelmsford writes that--

“In 1424 [when Chelmsford Church was largely built] John De Vere,

12th Earl of Oxford, was at the head of that family, having

succeeded to the title in 1415. From his known adherence to the

House of Lancaster, he may be presumed to have been a person of

some importance, and as a consequence in constant communication

with the Court. Undoubtedly, therefore, he would journey to and

from Hedingham Castle, his baronial seat, to London, many times in

the course of the year; and as it would appear that the old

hostelry, known as the Black Boy, in this town, belonged to the De

Vere family, it is a very fair presumption that Chelmsford was not

only a halting-place for the Earl and his retainers upon the

occasion of their journeys, but probably used as an occasional

residence; and as he lived in almost royal state, his comings to

and fro would be a matter of as much importance to the then

townsfolk as a visit of the sovereign in the present day.... We can

readily believe that so powerful and wealthy a man would be the

first applied to for aid. That he did assist, is proved by the fact

of his shield, charged with the mullet, being carved in the

spandrel of the west door of the tower; and his crest, the boar,

being introduced in the apex of the arch of the same door; this

latter corresponds with the carved boar which formed part of the

ceiling of an apartment in the old Black Boy [see p. 71]. For five

centuries did this mighty family rule it most royally over many

parts of the country, their riches being immense, and their power

and influence being second only to the sovereign; and yet now a

cubic foot of stone in our parish church, and a cubic foot of oak

deposited in our museum, are all that remain in this town to remind

us of the De Veres.”

A good view of this famous old inn is given in Ryland’s view of

Chelmsford High Street, engraved in 1762, and reproduced as the

frontispiece of this volume. From it, in all probability, our six other

Essex Black Boys have taken their name, as the sign is unusually common

in the county. It stood at the corner of Springfield Lane and the High

Street. The _Ipswich Express_, in speaking of the closing of this

ancient house, which, as it remarked, had been “for centuries one of the

oldest inns on the road,” remarked as follows:--

“There are not only pleasant recollections of ‘slippered ease,’ but

historical associations, connected with the old Inn. Here royal

heads have rested, and warriors have halted as they hurried off to

draw the sword on fields of military renown. Within its rooms,

martyrs have passed the last night of life, in the fiery days of

religious persecution, on their way to the fatal stake. In the old

war, its roof often resounded with the mad jollity of prizemen and

privateers, who had just brought their rich booty into Harwich,

and, as they posted off to London, had halted at the well-known

hostelry to make merry with their gains. A quarter of a century

ago, between forty and fifty stage-coaches passed its door daily,

most of which pulled up, if they did not pause, to allow the

travellers to partake of the provision made for them; while

numberless pairs of post-horses stood saddled in its capacious

stables.”

Dickens mentions this house in _Pickwick Papers_ (1st Edition, p. 161),

when Mr. Weller, Senior, relates how he transported Messrs. Job Trotter

and Charles Fitz-Marshall from “the Black Boy at Chelmsford ... right

through to Ipswich.” Mr. Chancellor has ascertained that, in a deed

dated 1642, this inn is described as “heretofore known by the name or

sign of the CROWN or NEW INN, or the KING’S ARMS, and later as the BLACK

BOY.” That it was the BLACK BOY in 1636 is certain, for Taylor, “the

Water Poet,” in his _Catalogue of Tavernes_, mentions it as one of the

chief inns in the town at that time. In 1660, the Rev. R. E. Bartlett

finds it recorded in the Chelmsford registers that “Andrew Speller, a

dumb man, who lived at the Black Boy in Chelmsford, was buried the 2 day

of August.” It has probably retained the same sign ever since. This

frequent change at so early a date is very interesting. It seems to

indicate (as Mr. Chancellor suggests) that, on the house passing out of

the hands of the De Veres, it became an inn, and that, although it may

have displayed the sign of the CROWN (see p. 166), it was commonly known

as the NEW INN. Afterwards, for some reason, it came to be styled the

KING’S ARMS, and still later the BLACK BOY, though why, it is not

apparent. At the time of his demise, this “Old Boy” (as he may be

familiarly styled) was, therefore, at least 250 years old. It might be

thought strange that having existed so long, and having begat the seven

sons already mentioned, he never grew into a “Black Man,” but died as he

had so long lived, a “Black Boy”! A BLACK BOY formerly existed in

Saffron Walden, as shown by the following entries in the Corporation

records:--“March 27th, 1682, ‘Spent at the Black Boy 12 pence,’” and a

little later 4s. 6d. was “spent at the Black Boy with the Chamberlains

when we assessed the fines on the Quakers.” In the Waltham Abbey parish

register is the following entry:--“Judith Sutton, from y^{e} Blacks,

Bur. May 26, 1740.” This was probably the BLACK BOY Inn that formerly

stood in Town-mead Lane. The BLACK BOY is a sign of venerable antiquity.

From the first it has been largely used as a tobacconist’s sign. The

crest of the Tobacco-pipe Makers’ Company, incorporated in 1663, was a

demi-Moor, while the supporters were _two young Moors proper, wreathed

about the loins with tobacco leaves vert_. A black Saracen’s head, too,

was the badge of Lord Cobham in the time of Edward IV., and also of Sir

John Harlwyn.

Essex contains at the present time no less than twenty-seven houses

showing the sign of the GREEN MAN. The GREEN MAN at Leyton is mentioned

in the _Trials of Swan and Jeffries_ in 1752, while the GREEN MAN at

Leytonstone is mentioned by Daniel Defoe in his _Tour through Great

Britain_, first published in 1724, and is also marked on Roque’s _Map of

Ten Miles round London_, published in 1741. It is recorded in the

_Gentleman’s Magazine_ (vol. xxiii. p. 148) that Charles, Earl of

Tankerville, died of an apoplectic fit at the GREEN MAN on Epping Forest

on the 14th of March, 1753, as he was travelling to London. Old maps of

the latter half of last century show quite a number of GREEN MEN round

Epping and Hainault Forests, showing the connection even then existing

in the minds of men between the sign-board GREEN MEN and foresters. In

Mr. Creed’s list of signs round Epping in 1789, GREEN MEN are named at

the following places: Epping, Waltham Abbey, Moreton, Stanford Rivers,

Magdalen Laver, Harlow, and Roydon. Evidently this sign was very common

a century ago. Although this device has a two-fold origin, it is rather

difficult to account for its great prevalence in the present day.

Originally, no doubt, the sign represented the green-clad morris-dancers

that played an important part in the shows and pageants of mediæval

times; but, when these went out of date and were forgotten by the common

people, the sign was made to represent a forester in his coat of green.

As early as the seventeenth century the sign had come to be connected

with that celebrated forester, Robin Hood, as is shown by the designs on

many of the tokens, which represent the outlaw accompanied by his

friend Little John. At Elsenham and at High Beech the sign now takes

the name of the ROBIN HOOD, while ROBIN HOOD AND LITTLE JOHN occur in

combination at Brentwood, although in an advertisement in the

_Chelmsford Chronicle_ for January 20, 1786, the house is spoken of

simply as the ROBIN HOOD. At High Beech, as is often the case, the

following couplet is appended to the sign:--

“If Robin Hood be not at home,

Step in and ask for Little John.”

Mrs. F. B. Palliser says,[89] “Queen Anne bore, as one of the supporters

of her arms, one of the savage men, wreathed with ivy and bearing clubs,

of Denmark, since designated and adopted for an inn-sign as the GREEN

MAN.” This, however, is probably not the only origin of the sign. At the

present day the sign is generally represented on Essex signboards by a

gamekeeper in a green velveteen coat. At Grays there is a GREEN MAN AND

BELL (beer-house), which is doubtless an impaled sign.

A beer-shop at Great Chesterford displays a pictorial sign--evidently of

some age--representing, apparently, the MAN AND PLOUGH. A rustic in a

green smock-frock stands at the handle of his plough, politely touching

his hat to passers-by.

At Chelmsford and Dunmow the principal inn in each of the two towns has

for its sign the SARACEN’S HEAD. The former is mentioned in the

_Chelmsford Chronicle_ for January 6, 1786. It is also many times named

in the _Trials of Swan and Jeffries_ in 1752, on account of a robbery

having been committed there. It also finds mention in Mr. Joseph

Strutt’s Essex and Herts romance, entitled _Queenhoo Hall_, published in

1808. The hero of the tale says (ii. p. 179) that “on my arrival at

Chelmsford, I went to one of the principal inns, distinguished by the

sign of the Saracen, or Man Quintain, where I took some small

refreshment.” Other examples, making five in all, occur at Danbury,

Braintree, and Thaxted. Though not described by Boyne, tokens, bearing

a representation of a Saracen’s head, and issued by John Havers at the

house of that name in Thaxted, are still extant, showing the house and

its sign to be of considerable antiquity. Mr. Joseph Clarke, F.S.A., of

Saffron Walden can recollect that, many years ago, the sign-board bore

the representation of a man’s head with a very ferocious countenance,

but the sign-board is not now pictorial. The sign owes its origin

(largely, at least) to the Crusades. It was formerly much more common

than now.

The MAID’S HEAD at Thorpe-le-Soken is, in all probability, not a sign

put up by some enamoured publican. As a general rule the sign, wherever

it appears, has been derived from the arms of the Mercers’ Company,

already given (p. 33). Sir William Parr, K.G., and also his

grand-daughter, Queen Catherine Parr, both bore the same device as a

badge. But in the case of the example at Thorpe there can be little

doubt that the sign is a really ancient one, and that it represents the

crest of the D’Arcy family, Barons of Chiche,[90] to whom, in 1551,

Edward VI. granted the manor of Thorpe and neighbouring lands, which

long afterwards remained in the family. The same sign often occurs

elsewhere as the MAIDEN HEAD. There was apparently a house of this name

(not necessarily an inn) at Chelmsford in the seventeenth century, as

the Rev. R. E. Bartlett finds the following entry in the parish

registers:--“1620, Matthew Prentys of Chelmsford, husbandman and

householder at the Maidenhead in Chelmsford, was buried the xiiii. of

May, being Sunday.” The VILLAGE MAID, which occurs at Bradfield, is a

very modern sign, and is not mentioned by Larwood and Hotten. Probably

the landlord set it up in honour of some damsel of his acquaintance.

The MERMAID, though only a semi-human sign, is most conveniently noticed

here. There is no example of it now existing in the county, though it

occurs on the farthing token of Michael Arnold of Colchester. As a sign

it used formerly to be not uncommon.

The *SILENT WOMAN is the name of a public-house, with a truly pictorial

sign, at Widford. The signs of the GOOD WOMAN and the QUIET WOMAN, which

occur occasionally in other counties, are identical with this, and, all

alike, constitute a piece of unwarrantable slander on the fair sex,

being intended to convey the idea that a woman can only be silenced by

being deprived of her head. Larwood and Hotten say (p. 455):

“There is a very curious example of this sign at Widford, near

Chelmsford, representing on one side a half-length portrait of

Henry VIII., on the reverse, a woman without a head, dressed in the

costume of the latter half of the last century, with the

inscription _Forte Bonne_. The addition of the portrait of Henry

VIII. has led to the popular belief that the headless woman is

meant for Anne Boleyn, though probably it is simply a combination

of the KING’S HEAD and GOOD WOMAN.”

[Illustration: THE SILENT WOMAN AT WIDFORD.]

The inscription on the sign-board is, presumably, intended to be the

French for “Very Good,” but it is spelled “_Fort Bon_,” and it has been

“_Fort Bone_.”

A writer in _Once a Week_ (N. S., ii. p. 487) says:

“The Essex tradition is that St. Osyth, when the convent was

attacked by the Danes [A.D. 635], fled down the park to a thicket,

since called ‘Nun’s Wood,’ where she was overtaken, and her head

cut off; and that on the spot where the head fell, a spring of

water burst forth, which flows to this day. Another local tradition

asserts that on one night in each year St. Osyth revisits the scene

of her former abode, walking with her head under her arm. It is

this legend which probably gave rise to the sign of the ‘Good

Woman,’ at Widford, near Chelmsford,--of whom, by the way, I may

remark that she is currently said to be the only good woman in

Essex.”

Larwood and Hotten say that the sign was largely used by oilmen, which

makes it very probable that the device has some reference to the

“heedless virgins” who had no oil in their lamps when the bridegroom

came--_heed_ and _head_ having formerly been pronounced alike, according

to those authors. The sign is not uncommon on the Continent also.

A writer in _Notes and Queries_ (Fifth Series, vol. iv. p. 337) very

ingeniously explains the origin of this sign. He says:

“In the days of old it was _la bone fame_, with a meaning the same

as that of _la bonne renommée_ in later times. According to Virgil,

Fame walks on the earth while her head is concealed in the clouds--

‘Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter nubila condit.’

Consequently _la bone fame_ was represented by a headless woman--at

times, no doubt, very roughly drawn. By degrees the word _fame_

dropped out of the French language, and then people read _la bonne

femme_, correcting what they deemed an orthographical error. But

[then arose the question] why should the ‘good woman’ have no head?

The explanation was, of course, suggested by some hen-pecked cynic

at the wineshop.”

On the high road between Braintree and Chelmsford, and in the parish of

Great Leighs, stands an inn with the strange sign of the ST. ANN’S

CASTLE. On the map of the road between Chelmsford and Bury, given in

Ogilby’s _Itinerarium Angliæ_, published in 1675, the words “St. Ann’s”

appear against a house beside the high road at Leighs and on the site of

the present inn. It appears from this that the word “Castle” is a modern

addition to the name, perhaps connected with the adjacent ruins of

Leighs Priory. The house is, however, marked as the ST. ANN’S CASTLE on

Greenwood’s map of Essex, published as long ago as 1824. In White’s

_Gazetteer of Essex_ it is stated that there formerly stood upon the

spot a hermitage, known as St. Ann’s, “where pilgrims rested on their

way to and from the shrine of St. Thomas à Becket. At the Dissolution,

in 1571, it was given to Thos. Jennings, and its site is now occupied by

an inn, called the St. Ann’s Castle, and said to be the oldest licensed

public-house in England.” Morant says of it in 1768, “‘Tis now converted

into an ale-house.” Probably it had become an inn much earlier, for

Taylor, in 1636, mentions one Will. Chandler as being a keeper of

“innes at Plashie and St. Annes.”

According to G. W. Johnson’s _History of Great Totham_, it is stated

that a hill at that place “seems to have been dedicated to the Virgin

Mary, for at its base is a small public-house known now [1831], and as

far back as memory can go, as the VIRGIN’S TAVERN.” The sign is not now

in existence.

In speaking of the LAME DOG, which does not occur as a sign in this

county, Larwood and Hotten say that it is sometimes accompanied by the

following couplet:

“Stop, my friends, and stay awhile

To help the lame dog over the style.”

They continue (p. 450): “Sometimes, as at Bulmer, Essex, we see a

somewhat similar idea expressed by a MAN STRUGGLING through a

globe--head and arms protruding on one side, his legs on the other--with

the inscription, ‘Help me through this world.’” This sign is not now to

be seen at Bulmer.

A HAND occurs on the halfpenny token issued by Lawrence Brown, junior,

of Wickham, in 1669; a HAND AND GLOVE on that of Henry Cordall of

Chelmsford in 1658; a HAND AND PEN on that of Samuel Cox of Coggeshall;

and a HAND AND BALL on that of “D. G.” issued at “The Hand and Bowle in

Barking” in 1650. In 1675, a house of some kind displayed the sign of

the CROSS AND HAND at Marks Tey (see p. 163). Although the hand does not

now appear, either singly or in combination, on any Essex sign-board, it

is not uncommon in other counties. Its use is attributable to the fact

that early sign-painters often represented it issuing out of a cloud to

perform some action or support some object. This brings to a close the

list of human signs now occurring in the county of Essex.

[Illustration] CHAPTER VIII.

_NAUTICAL SIGNS._

The small class which will next receive notice contains what may be

called “Nautical Signs.” Essex supports quite a considerable fleet of

ships upon its sign-boards. These are of widely different builds, and

are very variously rigged. Most of them are, of course, situated near

the coast; but others are, strange to say, far inland. The author would

be guilty of great impropriety did he not speak first of NOAH’S ARK--the

greatest feat of early ship-building on record. As a sign, it was to be

seen at Kelvedon twenty years ago, but is now non-existent. _An ark or,

on the top a dove argent, holding in the beak an olive-branch vert_,

forms the crest of the Shipwrights’ Company, incorporated in 1605. As

already stated, no less than twenty-two SHIPS are to be found in

different parts of the county. The surmise that some of these are

intended to represent _sheep_ has been elsewhere advanced (p. 23). Mr.

King finds evidence in ancient deeds of no less than three different

houses at Leigh which have formerly borne the sign of the SHIP. The

existing example was probably converted into an inn about the end of

last century. It was a private house in the middle of the century.

Another inn is first spoken of as the Ship in 1728. In 1732, it was

“known by the sign of the Ship,” but before 1756, when it was spoken of

as “formerly known by the sign of the Ship,” it had ceased to be an inn.

The third and probably the earliest house of this name was a private

residence in 1756, having formerly been called the SHIP. A SHIP is

depicted on the tokens of “William Martin at the Key [? Quay] in

Barking,” and of “Thomas Pollard at the [Ship] in Plaistowe,” 1668, and

the SHIP at *Colchester is several times mentioned in the advertisements

appearing in the various numbers of the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ issued

during February, 1786. The first and last are, perhaps, identical with

the houses of the same name still existing at those places. In addition

to the foregoing we have five OLD SHIPS. If Mr. Plimsoll were informed

of this fact it would probably cause him some alarm; but he would be

reassured on learning that, with one exception, all are some distance

inland. They are situated respectively at West Thurrock, Debden,

Chelmsford, Aveley, and Rochford. The *OLD SHIP at the last-named place

must be in very unseaworthy condition, for it was described as _old_ in

an advertisement in the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for January 27, 1786.

There is also a *NEW SHIP at Rochford--doubtless a house started in

opposition to the OLD SHIP at the same place. The sign of the *SHIP AND

ANCHOR, which occurs at Maldon, is a combination the meaning of which

will be at once apparent. The SHIP AND SHOVEL at Rippleside, Barking, is

at least forty years old. It is probably in some way connected with Sir

Cloudesley Shovel, as there is a portrait of that gentleman in the inn.

The sign also occurs elsewhere, namely, in Steel Yard, St. Thomas’

Street, London, S.E. An old newspaper cutting says a house known as the

SHIP AND SHOVEL “is situated near to Dagenham Beach, in Essex, eleven

miles from London, where Parish and Hadbrook fought a hard battle of 41

rounds, on the 13th of March, 1820, which terminated in favour of Parish

in thirty-eight minutes. The SHIP AND SHOVEL was the house of call for

that day.” There is a LOBSTER SMACK at Canvey Island, a FISHING SMACK at

Barking, an OYSTER SMACK at Burnham, and a SMACK at Leigh, concerning

which Mr. H. W. King writes, that it was no doubt so named when the

oyster-fishery flourished there in the last century. There is not now a

smack belonging to the port. The house itself was for centuries a

private residence of persons of good account. The sign of the PETER

BOAT, which also occurs at Leigh, is apparently unique. A peter-boat

was a sort of fishing-vessel, sharp both stem and stern, and

half-decked, with a spritsail, instead of a mainsail and boom. Mr. King

states that the inn derives its name from the fact that “all the

fishing-boats at Leigh were formerly peter-boats. But, out of a fleet of

120 or more fishing-boats here now, only one peter-boat, I am told,

remains, and that I have not seen. The house itself, of the descent of

which I have a complete record since 1645, is built of timber and is of

the middle of the seventeenth century or earlier. The present owners

have held it since 1662, the landlord who now keeps the inn being about

the sixth in direct descent. It is first mentioned as known by the sign

of the Peter-boat in 1757. The then owner had come into possession in

1739, and had so named the house between those years.” At Vange there is

a BARGE, at North Woolwich an OLD BARGE HOUSE, at Forest Gate a

STEAMSHIP, and at Chelmsford a ROYAL STEAMER (probably an impaled sign).

The Barge here mentioned was formerly the MAN WITH SEVEN WIVES, as Mr.

King can recollect. At the time it belonged to a man named _Wife_.

Presumably his family numbered seven individuals. There is also a

beer-house of the same name at Rettendon, up to which place the river

Crouch is navigable for barges. The PACKET occurs at *Harwich and

*Manningtree. Sixty years ago there was another example at *Colchester.

The sign of the FERRY-BOAT occurs at Walthamstow, North Fambridge, and

Canewdon. Another house of the same name has recently disappeared from

the county, as also a FERRY HOUSE. Sixty years ago the sign of the

WHERRY (not noticed by Larwood and Hotten) occurred at *Mistley. The

sign of the HOY still occurs at Tollesbury and at South Benfleet. Mr.

King remarks that one would naturally expect to find this sign at the

latter place, “as a long succession of hoymen carried on a lucrative

business there. The HOY is now pictorially represented on the sign-board

by a barge, though the house is still called the HOY; and a trade in

hay, straw, and corn is still carried on in two or three barges.” The

sign is not referred to in the _History of Sign-boards_. The following

epitaph upon a Hoyman appears in the churchyard at South Benfleet.

Though not a very scholarly production, it is said to be the work of a

former rector of the parish.

“James Mathews, Ob. July 14, 1728.

Sixty-three years our Hoyman sailed merrily round,

Forty-four lived parishioner where he’s aground,

Five wives bare him thirty-three children--enough:

Land another as honest before he gets half.”

A hoy was a one-masted, sloop-rigged coasting vessel, formerly much

used. It is extremely difficult to suggest any likely origin for the

sign of the PLOUGH AND SAIL, which occurs no less than four times in the

county, namely, at Tollesbury, East Hanningfield, Paglesham, and Maldon.

Larwood and Hotten do not allude to it. The two first are each at least

forty years old. At first one might suppose it a meaningless impalement

of two distinct signs, the PLOUGH and the SAIL, but it does not appear

that the latter figures as a sign, either singly or in combination with

any other article except a plough, in any part of England. Moreover, it

is hardly likely that the two signs would appear impaled four times in

Essex, while the combination is (with one exception) unknown in all

other counties of England. An examination of the lists of signs in

thirty of the principal counties of England will show that it does not

occur in any of them, with the exception of the adjoining county of

Suffolk, wherein the sign occurs twice. It appears probable, therefore,

that the sign has some local significance, though it is difficult to say

exactly what. Several gentlemen have offered suggestions as to its

origin. It has been thought to be a corruption of the “Plow and Flail”

(and therefore doubly agricultural), or a representation of the old

toast of “Agriculture and Commerce” (represented by a plough and a

ship), but the most likely suggestion seems to be one put forward by the

Rev. H. L. Elliot, who thinks it is intended as an appeal for the custom

of thirsty souls working both on land and sea. All our Essex examples,

except that at Hanningfield, are upon the coast. The same gentleman

suggests that the sign may be a corruption of the “Plough-tail” or

handle, which Edwards, in his _Words, Facts, and Phrases_, says is

probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon _stail_, a handle. The word is

still in use, meaning a handle, in Warwickshire and other parts of the

country. An appeal to the readers of _Notes and Queries_ has so far

thrown no light on the meaning of this sign. Forty years ago there was a

SHIP AND EXCISE OFFICE at Waltham Abbey and a PRIVATEER at Harwich. At

Wivenhoe there is a SHIP AT LAUNCH. Forty years ago it was known as the

SHIP LAUNCH. This large fleet of sign-board ships is, however, supplied

with only eighteen ANCHORS; and, as some of these may represent the

symbol of Hope, the supply must be regarded as very inadequate. One of

them, belonging to Barking, is described as a BLUE ANCHOR. Another of

the same description used formerly to exist on Canvey Island, but it

appears to have been lost in some storm during the last forty years;

while another at Mersey, which is mentioned in the Rev. Baring-Gould’s

_Mehalah_, has also disappeared, unless it be identical with the ANCHOR

still existing at that place. The ANCHOR at Canewdon seems to have

existed there since at least 1787, as it is mentioned in an

advertisement in the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for the 5th of January in

that year. At Grays there is an ANCHOR AND HOPE. The CROWN AND ANCHOR,

the emblem of the Royal Navy, occurs at Aveley and Braintree; and the

SUN AND ANCHOR, which is probably nothing but an impaled sign, occurs at

Steeple. A token is extant bearing an ANCHOR, the initials “R. ^{S.}

I.,” and the inscription, “At the Anker, in Lee [Leigh], 1664.” Mr. H.

W. King writes:[91] “This is undoubtedly the token of Robert Sayer and

Joan his wife, shopkeepers, at this precise date. The ANCHOR was their

shop sign. There was no inn of that name. Joan Sayer survived her

husband and died in 1689.” Most of our ANCHORS are situated upon the sea

coast, but there are not a few inland--at Ingatestone, Chelmsford,

Abbots Roothing, &c. In 1789 there was one at Chipping Ongar.

[Illustration] CHAPTER IX.

_ASTRONOMICAL SIGNS._

Astronomical signs fall naturally into another small class, which will

be treated of next. In Essex we have six examples of the sign of the

HALF MOON, which may represent either crescents taken from some one’s

arms or else the emblem of temporal power. The HALF MOON at *Chelmsford,

a small, though ancient, house, possesses a quaint and truly pictorial

sign-board. At 94, Great Suffolk Street, London, S.E., there has been

for three-quarters of a century, at least, a house with the most

extraordinary sign of the MOONRAKERS. It is all but impossible to

conceive any origin for so strange a device. It is just possible,

however, that the sign may have some connection with a tale told of the

inhabitants of the town of Coggeshall, about whom so many similar

stories are told. One fine night, so says the tale, certain of the

natives of that celebrated town observed what they took to be a fine

round cheese floating on the surface of a pond. Thereupon, it is further

stated, they procured rakes and endeavoured to draw the supposed cheese

to land. Nor did they discover, until they had been some time so

engaged, that their cheese was merely the reflection of the moon in the

water! The SUN is met with twelve times and the RISING SUN nine times.

The use of the sun as a sign is very ancient, both in England and on the

Continent. A rising sun formed one of the badges of Edward III., and

shining suns were used as badges by several other English sovereigns. A

sun also

[Illustration: SUN IN SPLENDOUR.

(_Badge of Richard II._)]

forms a prominent charge in the arms of the Distillers’ Company. The

_Sun in Splendour_, used as a badge by Richard II., is here shown. The

engraving is taken from an illuminated manuscript in the Harleian

Collection, wherein the badge is painted on the sail of a ship. Larwood

and Hotten suggest that the RISING SUN was, perhaps, adopted as a sign

“on account of the favourable omen it presents for a man commencing

business.” The SUN at *Thaxted seems to have existed since the year 1786

at least, for it is mentioned in the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for January

20th in that year. The SUN Inn at Romford bears the monogram “T. ^{W.}

L.” and the date 1632. The SUN INN in Church Street, Saffron Walden, was

once a house of note, but is now a private residence. It was probably

built about 1625. The devices, more grotesque than elegant, which adorn

its many gables, make it one of the best remaining Essex examples of

houses adorned with parge work. In 1646, when it was probably the chief

inn in the town, it lodged no less important an individual than Oliver

Cromwell. His portrait, painted on the tiles at the side of a

fire-place, was found during some recent restorations, and is now in the

Museum. It was, doubtless, covered up at the Restoration.[92] Until

about forty years ago there stood beside the main road to Colchester,

just outside the parish of Kelvedon, an inn known as the SUN. It is

still a curious old house, worthy of notice from the passer-by, but up

to the date named it, and even the furniture it contained, exhibited all

the characteristics of a sixteenth century house. Its carved woodwork,

however, was sold and afterwards accidentally burned and its furniture

scattered. The pictorial sign-board of the RISING SUN at Castle

Hedingham is very grotesque. It is here represented

[Illustration: RISING SUN.

(_At Castle Hedingham._)]

within the sign-iron of the BELL at the same place (p. 158). The RISING

SUN at Salcot is many times mentioned in the Rev. Baring-Gould’s

_Mehalah_. It is therein (ii. p. 4) thus described:--“At the end of the

village stands a low tavern, the Rising Sun, a mass of gables. Part of

it (the tavern drinking-room) is only one storey high, but the rest is a

jumble of roofs and lean-to buildings, chimneys and ovens--a miracle of

picturesqueness.” As previously stated (pp. 147 and 83) the sun enters

into two very absurd combinations, a SUN AND ANCHOR at Steeple, and a

SUN AND WHALEBONE at Latton. Both of these are, in all probability,

impaled signs. The STAR appears on Essex sign-boards eight times. Its

use is probably due to the fact that in mediæval times

[Illustration: STAR.]

[Illustration: MULLET.]

it was the symbol of the Virgin Mary, and that it forms the crest of the

Innholders’ Company; but it is very probable that in Essex the sign of

the STAR often represents the _mullet argent_ which formed one of the

chief badges of the De Veres, Earls of Oxford, and also the most

prominent charge in the family arms (see p. 70).[93] It was probably

first adopted by Robert, the third Earl, who died in 1221. It appears on

his seals and on his monument at Hatfield Broad Oak. Thenceforth it was

borne by all his descendants. Mr. Elliot, in the interesting article

already quoted (p. 70), says that at the Battle of Barnet, in 1471, the

defeat of the Lancastrians is attributed to a mistake made by the Earl

of Warwick’s men; who, in the morning mist, took the badge of the Earl

of Oxford’s men for the Yorkist badge of the Sun in Splendour. They

accordingly shot at their friends, who, suspecting treachery, cried

“Treason!” and fled from the field. Mr. Elliot adds that “this badge is

frequently found on houses and churches in this county and Suffolk.” It

is in every way probable that it was often put upon the former as a

sign. In Heraldry the star, or _étoile_, is represented with six wavy

points and not pierced in the centre, as here shown, thus distinguishing

it from the mullet, which has five straight points and is usually

pierced. The latter is said originally to have represented, not a star,

but a spur-rowel. It appears from the parish registers,[94] that there

was also a STAR at Grays in 1724. At Ilford there is a coffee-shop with

the sign of the MORNING STAR, probably to indicate that it is open early

for working men. A beer-house at Witham, however, has the same sign. Mr.

King finds in ancient deeds mention of a STAR--either inn, shop, or

tenement--at Rochford in 1693. There are now beer-shops of the same name

at Ingatestone, Woodham Ferris, and elsewhere, while a NORTHERN STAR

exists at Romford. At Brightlingsea there is a STAR OF DENMARK

(whatever that might be), and an OLD STAR occurs at Good Easter. Twice,

also, as elsewhere mentioned (p. 79), we meet with the STAR AND FLEECE,

namely, at Kelvedon and Romford; while the STAR AND GARTER, representing

the Insignia of the Order of the Garter, occurs at Chelmsford and at

Newport. An advertisement in the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for February 10,

1786, refers to the STAR at Writtle, and another in the same journal for

March 31st following refers to the STAR at Dunmow, at both of which

places the sign still exists. The STAR at Kelvedon, perhaps identical

with the STAR AND FLEECE now existing there, is mentioned in the issue

for the 29th of December in the same year. The *STAR AND ANCHOR which

appeared at Colchester sixty years ago was in all probability an

impalement. Mr. E. W. Bingham of Castle Hedingham is in possession of

documentary evidence showing that during the latter part of last century

the present vicarage at that place was known as the BLACK MULLET. It may

or may not have been an inn at the time. The sign may have been set up

originally as a contrast to the silver mullet of the De Veres.

[Illustration]

[Illustration] CHAPTER X.

_MISCELLANEOUS SIGNS._

The signs which still remain to be treated of defy all efforts to

classify them. All classification, indeed, when applied to this subject,

is very vague and unsatisfactory. The following will, therefore, be

spoken of as “Miscellaneous Signs,” and will be taken in any order found

most convenient. Those already noticed under other headings will not be

referred to again, and many are not of sufficient interest to be worth

noticing. The great majority are uninteresting modern vulgarisms, while

very few are of heraldic origin.

Many signs of this class are named after places or towns, or after

objects of local or general celebrity. Such are the ALBION, the BALMORAL

CASTLE, the WINDSOR CASTLE, the WALMER CASTLE, the TROSSACHS HOTEL, the

BRIDGE HOTEL, the GIBRALTAR TAVERN, the GRAVING DOCK TAVERN, the HIGHAM

HILL TAVERN, the HALLSVILLE TAVERN, the CAMBRIDGE HOTEL, the COMMON

GATE, the LONDON TAVERN, the DOCK HOUSE TAVERN, the FOREST GATE, the

FOREST GLEN, the TOWN OF AYR, the TRAFALGAR TAVERN, the *WATERLOO TAVERN

(at Colchester), the TIDAL BASIN TAVERN, the HALF-WAY TAVERN (at

Southchurch), the NORFOLK INN, the GROUND RENT TAVERN, the BRICK AND

TILE INN at Copford, two BRITISH INNS, two CANTEENS, two FLAGS, two

UNION FLAGS, two FOUNTAINS, the STORES at Willingale Doe (beer-house),

the GOLDEN HOUSE at Forest Gate, an IVY CHIMNEYS (beer-house) at Theydon

Bois, the RED HOUSE at Ilford, two GUNS, two HOPES (one at Southend

being at least sixty years old), the IMPERIAL TAVERN, the LOCOMOTIVE,

the NEW MILL, the OLD MILL, two PIER HOTELS, two PUNCH BOWLS, the QUART

POT, the RED TAPE TAVERN, several ROYAL STANDARDS, the TELEGRAPH, the

TEMPLE, the THATCHED HOUSE, the OLD THATCHED HOUSE (a very old inn at

Epping), the WARREN INN, the TOLLHOUSE, the WAGGON, and the WAGGON AND

HORSES, all of which are probably less than forty years old. It is

doubtful whether a single one of these signs could claim an heraldic

origin. Most of them lie upon the outskirts of London. There are now

four ALMA TAVERNS, though twenty years ago there was but one. The name,

of course, commemorates the battle of Alma, but why fresh inns should be

thus named so long after the event, is by no means obvious. There is a

BOWLING GREEN at Elmstead, near Colchester, and sixty years ago there

was another at Dunmow.

The WINDMILL, which is an ancient sign, occurs no less than eight times

within the county. In most cases houses have adopted this sign on

account of there being a windmill adjacent to them. At Romford there has

been for at least sixty years an OLD WINDMILL AND BELLS, which is

doubtless an impaled sign.

At Laindon there is a FORTUNE OF WAR, well known as a meet of the

Hounds. Larwood and Hotten do not notice the sign, though there are

several examples of it in London. The TITLE DEED TAVERN is a small house

of recent origin at Buckhurst Hill. Thirty years ago the ground on which

it stands was unenclosed forest. At Hornchurch there is an inn with the

strange sign of the GOOD INTENT, which is not mentioned by Larwood and

Hotten. It was opened as a beer-shop, some fifty years ago, by the

father of the present landlord, who had been so far an unfortunate man.

In opening his new house with good intentions for the future, he thus

appropriately named it, and his hopes appear to have been realized, as

his house still remains. There is a beer-house with the same name at

Waltham Holy Cross. At Springfield there is an ENDEAVOUR, which

presumably derived its name from some similar circumstance. There are

beer-houses with the motto LIVE AND LET LIVE at Little Canfield,

Theydon Bois, and Chadwell Heath. Another at Pitsea was, within the

recollection of Mr. King, thus inscribed:

“Live and let live

Whod a though it;”

which was intended to mean “who would have thought it?” but the

landlord’s orthographical knowledge was very imperfect. The HAVERING

BOWER Inn, situated in Ann Street, Shadwell, close to Bow Station, is a

house connected with, though not situated in, Essex. Why an inn of this

name should appear thus fifteen miles at least from the place from which

it takes its name, is not very clear.

In the Roman Road at Colchester appears the sign of the ROMAN URN. One

would conclude that the house had been named after some Roman urn that

had been dug up on its site, did it not figure in the list years ago as

the ROMAN ARMS. Possibly, however, this is a misprint, although the sign

of the ROMAN ARMS does actually occur elsewhere, namely, in the Roman

Road, London, E. Mr. Walford, in _Greater London_ (vol. i. p. 385), says

that there is another example of the sign of the ROMAN URN just over the

county boundary at Cheshunt, in Hertfordshire. “It is to be seen

embedded in the front of the inn in Crossbrook Street. The urn was found

on the spot many years ago, but its date is far from certain.” Messrs.

Larwood and Hotten do not allude to the sign, which is certainly very

uncommon.

One of our very strangest signs--that of the COAL HOLE--occurs at Leigh.

It has only appeared there within the last few years, and Mr. H. W. King

is of opinion that it is probably named after the once-well-known COAL

HOLE Tavern in the Strand. At the same place another beer-house is known

as the UNITED BRETHREN, probably after a Friendly Society there; but

their club-house is now the Crooked Billet.

The sign of the NEW INN, which is the commonest sign in Devonshire, and

occurs no less than one hundred and four times in that county, is only

twice met with in Essex, but there is also a beer-house so called at

Romford. Evidently the Conservative nature of the majority of Essex folk

leads them to prefer things _old_, instead of new. At Plaistow there is

a GREEN GATE, and forty years since there was a *BLUE POSTS at Witham,

in both of which cases the colour of the portals probably served the

same office as a sign in distinguishing the house. Neither sign is

mentioned in the _History of Sign-boards_, though the former is

certainly a century old, as it is mentioned in an advertisement in the

_Chelmsford Chronicle_ for January 5, 1787, and the latter is referred

to in another advertisement on the 23rd of the following month. It was

an old house of good standing, as it is also mentioned in the _Very

Young Lady’s Tour from London to Aldborough and Back_ (1804, see p. 37).

The writer says:

“Travellers frequently boast of the charms of an inn,

But the Blue Posts at Witham’s the best I have seen,

The rooms are so clean, so delicious the diet,

The landlord so civil, so spruce, and so quiet,

The servants all round so desirous to please,

That you find yourself here most completely at ease.

So we supp’d, and we slept, and we breakfasted too,

And then bid to Witham a parting adieu.”

The house was closed as an inn some time since, and is now a china shop,

kept by a prominent Witham teetotal advocate. Its door-posts are still

painted blue. Sixty years ago there was another inn of this name at

*Colchester. No Essex inn now displays the sign of the GATE, but there

are beer-houses of that name at Saffron Walden, Bardfield, and Dagenham.

At the two last-named places the houses bear the following very unpoetic

couplet:--

“This Gate hangs high, and hinders none,

Refresh and pay and travel on.”

At Wanstead there is a RED HOUSE, presumably so called from its colour.

In 1789 there was an EPPING PLACE Inn at Epping, and a BUSH-FAIR HOUSE

at Latton. The ESSEX INN, No 41, Aldgate High Street, London, E., is,

without doubt, so named because it forms the stopping-place of many

hay-carters and other travellers by road from Essex up to town.

Railways are referred to thirty-one times in all on Essex sign-boards,

although, as might be expected, mention is very rarely made of railways

among the signs of forty years ago. Thus we have five examples of the

RAILWAY INN, one of the RAILWAY ARMS, two of the RAILWAY BELL, seven of

the RAILWAY HOTEL, and sixteen of the RAILWAY TAVERN.

Twenty years ago there was an ABBEY GATE in Stanwell Street, Colchester,

doubtless named after the beautiful gateway of St. John’s Abbey, which

still stands. At the same time there was a BETTING-STAND at Galleywood,

where the Chelmsford Races are held, as well as an EXCHANGE INN and a

CHELMER INN, both at Heybridge. There is a MARK’S GATE in Markgate,

Dagenham; and a MARSH GATE at Stratford. Eight Essex inns are named

after the great GLOBE itself, while the WORLD’S END appears, at last, to

have been discovered near Tilbury Fort. This is a very proper name, if,

as has been thought, Tilbury is derived from two Saxon words, _Til_,

end, and _burgh_, city, _i.e._, the city at the end of the river road. A

beer-house keeper at Paglesham, however, seems also to consider that the

WORLD’S END is situated in the vicinity of his house. Probably both are

equally right and equally wrong. The GLOBE at *Epping is mentioned in

the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for January 13, 1786. At Bocking there is a

beer-house known as the DIAL, a device not named by Larwood and Hotten.

At the same place there is a PARK END beer-house, and at Felstead

another, known as the PYE’S BRIDGE tavern. A beer-house at Chigwell

styles itself the RETREAT. At Waltham Abbey is a FLOWER POT. A

beer-house at Inworth is known as the NEW TIMES, while another not far

off styles itself the OLD TIMES, probably out of rivalry. At Great

Baddow a beer-house appears as the NEW FOUND OUT. At Chelmsford there is

a UNITED beer-house, and a CORNUCOPIA at Southend.

No less than forty-two Essex inns display the sign of the BELL. Bells

were set up as signs as early as the fourteenth century. The origin of

their use in this way is probably due largely to our national fondness

for bell-ringing, but partly also to the great veneration in which bells

were held in superstitious times. Advertisements which appeared in the

_Chelmsford Chronicle_ refer to the inns with the sign of the BELL at

Castle Hedingham, Sible Hedingham, and Purleigh on January 6th, July 21,

1786, and March 2, 1787, respectively. These houses all exist at the

present day. The BELL at *Saffron Walden, though it does not now exist,

must formerly have been a house of some standing, for it is fairly often

referred to in the records of the Corporation. It is mentioned, for

instance, in 1642, in 1645, and in 1650. In 1664 3s. was “paid at the

Bell when the Quakers were committed,” and in 1714 4s. 4d. was “spent at

the Bell when Lord Suffolk took the oaths.” Tokens are extant, issued by

“Will. Mason at the [BELL] in Thaxtead, 1662,” though the sign does not

now exist there. The BELL at Castle Hedingham, still a first-class

hostelry, was a house of considerable note in the old coaching days. It

was a stopping-place for the “Old Bury Coach,” which passed through the

town. The building is ancient and extensive, though now much cut up and

divided. The spacious kitchen is roofed with massive timber, black with

age. In the large room upstairs have been held for many years the annual

meetings of the once-famous Hinckford Hundred Conservative Club. In

times past these meetings regularly formed the subject of a leader in

the _Times_, and addresses were delivered by Disraeli and other

prominent Conservative statesmen, but the club has now lost its old

importance. The ornamental sign-iron is represented elsewhere (p. 150).

Of the BELL at Leigh, Mr. King writes that he has no particular account,

but he believes “it has been an inn for probably a century, and that it

was pulled down to make way for the railroad, but rebuilt on part of the

same site.” The present rectory at West Tilbury was once an inn with the

sign of the BELL. The house was built by a speculator about the year

1780, and opened as an hostelry for the accommodation of the gentry that

always crowded to the Fort during war time. Six years later, however, it

had to be closed, and about the beginning of this century it was

purchased for the sum of £700 by the Rev. Sir Adam Gordon, Bart., who

then held the living, and presented to the parish as a rectory. A

certain number of Bells frequently appear on a sign-board. In such

cases the peal of bells in an adjacent belfry is generally alluded to,

as may be seen on reference to the Rev. H. A. Cockey’s _List of Essex

Rings_. In 1662 there was a house with the sign of the ONE BELL at

Romford. It is mentioned in the _Account of the Murder of Thomas

Kidderminster_, already referred to (p. 56). Taylor also, in 1636,

mentions a BELL at Romford, probably the same house. The sign of the

FIVE BELLS occurs at Vange and Colne Engaine. At the latter place there

are five church bells, but at the former only one, although there may

formerly have been more. There was another example of the sign at

Bocking forty years ago, when perhaps there were only five bells there.

Now, however, there are _six_, and the sign of the SIX BELLS (probably

the same house) appears there, as also at Dunmow and Great Waltham. At

the former place there are six bells, but at the latter eight. At

Boreham a beer-house is known as the SIX BELLS, that being the number at

that place. At Mashbury is a cottage still known as the BELLS. In a MS.

dated 1761 it is spoken of as the FIVE BELLS, and was probably then an

inn with that sign, though no church in the immediate vicinity has that

number of bells. The sign of the EIGHT BELLS appears at *Saffron Walden,

Great Tey, Belchamp Walter, and Bures Hamlet, at all of which there seem

to be peals of eight bells. In addition to these, we have a NEW BELL at

Harwich, and two RAILWAY BELLS, one near the station at Maldon, and the

other in Trinity Street, Halstead. The bell also enters into numerous

combinations, most of which are impalements, and therefore quite

meaningless. Thus we have a BELL AND ANCHOR at Canning Town, a COACH AND

BELL (a sign not referred to in the _History of Sign-boards_) at

Romford, the OLD WINDMILL AND BELLS, also at Romford, and examples of

the COCK AND BELL at High Easter, Writtle, and Romford. The latter has

apparently been in existence since 1786, as it is mentioned in the

_Chelmsford Chronicle_ for January 13th in that year. Twenty years ago

there was a BELL AND FEATHERS at Stanstead, which seems now to have

returned to the use of its former sign, which was a BELL simply (see p.

102). Though the fact is not mentioned by Boyne, tokens with the

following inscriptions are extant: “George Perrin at y^{e} Bell in

Stanstead. His Half Peny. 1669.” The same house and the same landlord

are also mentioned in Poor Robin’s _Perambulation_, already referred to

(p. 66). The writer (one cannot say _poet_) says:

“From Ugley I next way to Stanstead travell’d,

Upon a plain highway, well ston’d and gravelled.

This town of Stanstead, for distinction’s sake,

Doth unto itself the name Montfitchet take,

From the Montfitchets, once Lords of great fame,

And who erewhile were owners of the same.

There at the Bell, at my old friend George Perrin’s,

We drank and tippled like unto a herring;

For there is ale and stale beer, strong and mighty,

Will burn i’ the fire like unto _aqua vitæ_,

And that the reason is, as you may know,

That this Bell’s liquor makes men’s clappers go.”

In 1868 there was a CLAPPER at Woodham which, perhaps, belonged to one

or other of the bells just mentioned.

The CASTLE is a frequent Essex sign, occurring thirteen times in all. It

is an ancient sign, which is thought by Larwood and Hotten to have

originated in the fact that anciently entertainment was to be had at the

castles of the great, as at an inn. In later times the custom arose of

naming inns after particular castles, and it is easy to see that the

example of the sign now found at Hadleigh, and the two examples now

existing at **Colchester, originated in this way. Sixty years ago there

was another at *Saffron Walden, which was, of course, named after the

old castle there. Not improbably, in some cases, the sign may have been

derived from the arms of the Masons’ Company.[95] A castle is

represented on the seventeenth century token of Thomas Hewes of Castle

Hedingham--being, of course, the fine old castle of the De Veres at that

place. Mr. King finds mention in some old deeds dated 1693 of the CASTLE

AT TRIMME at Rochford in that day. This was probably an inn-sign, but

perhaps that of a shop or tenement. It was doubtless so called from the

ancient castle of the De Lacys, built in 1220, at Trim in Ireland,

which figured in the Civil War. As this castle does not appear to have

had any connection with Essex, the most probable conclusion is that the

sign was set up by some one who was present at the surrender of the

castle to Cromwell in 1649. The following advertisement appeared in the

_Chelmsford Chronicle_ on March 2, 1787:

“COCKING. On Friday, March 9th, will be fought a Main of Cocks, at

the sign of the CASTLE, Great Oakley, for Two Guineas a Battle, and

Five the odds; where the company of all gentlemen and others will

be esteemed a favour, by their humble servant William Rayner. The

Cocks to be pitted at eleven o’clock, and a good ordinary to be

provided at two.”

Mr. H. W. King writes:

“The present CASTLE at Hadleigh changed its name (though remaining

at the same house) late in the last, or early in the present,

century. It was formerly the BLUE BOAR, and old people persistently

called it so within my memory, in spite of the change. I have also

found evidence of this change in some old Court Rolls. This kind of

change is not infrequent. I conceive that the BLUE BOAR may have

been the sign of the inn for centuries, but the CASTLE was, I

suppose, thought more attractive to the many visitors to the old

Castle.”

The CHEQUERS is a sign of great interest and antiquity. It is very

common in Essex, as it appears no less than twenty times, including one

OLD CHEQUERS. It is equally common as a beer-house sign. Robt. Bowyer

kept the CHEQUERS at Bardfield in the seventeenth century, as shown by

his token, but no house now exists there under that name. Mr. Creed’s

list (p. 7) shows inns with this sign at Epping, Nazing, Waltham Abbey,

High Laver, and Nettleswell in 1789. The CHEQUERS at Roxwell seems to

have existed since 1787, as it is referred to in the _Chelmsford

Chronicle_ for February 2nd in that year. As a sign it is said to be

found even among the ruins of Pompeii, and, according to Larwood and

Hotten, it “is, perhaps, the most patriarchal of all signs.” The same

writers say (p. 488) that in England it is “said to represent the coat

of arms of the Earls de Warrenne and Surrey, who bore _chequy, or and

azure_, and in the reign of Edward IV. possessed the privilege of

licensing ale-houses.” The old money-changers used boards divided up

into squares like a modern chess-board, and the sign of the CHEQUERS may

have originated, partly, at least, in these “exchequers,” as they were

called, being hung up outside their places of business. Not improbably

the sign also represents the “chequer,” or board divided into squares,

and still used in some country inns for keeping a tally or record of the

amount drunk by each regular customer. As the sign is now painted it is

almost as often _lozengy_ as _chequy_. In the year 1764, according to an

advertisement of that date in the _Chelmsford Chronicle_, the present

IPSWICH ARMS at Ingatestone was impaled with a CHEQUERS, forming the

IPSWICH ARMS AND CHEQUERS.

The sign of the COACH AND HORSES, which occurs thirteen times in the

county, has already been alluded to. As might be expected, it was

considerably commoner forty years ago than now. An inn of this name at

Chelmsford has a pictorial sign-board, representing a number of

gentlemen, in the costume of fifty or sixty years ago, riding on the top

of a coach.

[Illustration: CROOKED BILLET.

(_After Larwood and Hotten._)]

Four houses in Essex, situated respectively at Leigh, Barking, Chadwell

Heath, and Nazing, now make use of the CROOKED BILLET as their sign.

Twenty years ago another did so, and there is still a beer-house so

styled at Felstead. There is also an OLD CROOKED BILLET at Walthamstow,

and a CROWN AND CROOKED BILLET (doubtless merely an impaled sign) at

Woodford Bridge. It is not by any means clear what this sign was derived

from. Larwood and Hotten confess that they “have not been able to

discover any likely origin; it may have been originally a ragged staff,

or a pastoral staff.... Frequently the sign is represented by an

untrimmed stick suspended above the door.” Mr. H. W. King writes that

the sign existed at Leigh in the earlier part of last century, being

used by a small house which still stands, but is not the inn now

displaying the sign in that town. He says:

“The first mention I find of the existing inn is an admission dated

1765, and referring to a certain tenement adjoining eastward to the

lane leading to the CROOKED BILLET. This previous house of the same

name is a small plaster cottage. It must have been a very mean

little public-house. At some period its sign was transferred to the

present house in the main street, which was formerly a gentleman’s

residence, and on the same property as the cottage.”

Mr. King adds:

“I incline to think that the CROOKED BILLET was originally a _fess

dancetté_ or a _chevron_--more probably the former--and that it is,

therefore, an heraldic sign. The sign in this town was originally a

pictorial one, and certainly it rudely represented the former. Now

that it is written a different origin is assigned to it here; but

there are so many others that I rather incline to the heraldic

origin. They said here formerly that faggots were shipped from the

wharf opposite the present house. But so they were from other

wharves.”

The sign of the CROSS might, with equal probability, be ascribed either

to an ecclesiastical or an heraldic origin: in the one it is the symbol

of Christianity, and in the other it is a very common ordinary. It came

to be used very commonly as an heraldic charge at the time of the

Crusades. The house with this name at Mistley was, however, probably so

called on account of its being situated at a “four-want-way,” where two

roads cross. There is another example of the sign at Boxted, and in 1823

there was a RED CROSS at *Colchester. On the map of the road between

London and Harwich, given in Ogilby’s _Itinerarium Angliæ_, published in

1675, a house--presumably an inn of importance--known as the CROSS AND

HAND, is shown at Marks Tey, and just forty-five miles from London.

Salmon (_History of Essex_, p. 69) quotes an ancient document,

describing the ceremonies connected with the annual making and

presenting of the Wardstaff in Ongar Hundred, in which another

house--probably an inn--with the sign of “the CROSS WITH A HAND at the

three wants in Fiffield” [Fyfield] is mentioned. In Essex, three or four

roads meeting are spoken of respectively as the three or four “wants.”

“The Cross [says Jewitt] whether golden, red, blue, or otherwise, was

formerly a much more common sign than now.” Several other Essex signs

are more or less ecclesiastical. For instance, the *MITRE at Colchester

is at least sixty years old. Very probably it was first so called after

one or other of the several well-known taverns of the same name which

formerly existed in London. Though it may have been derived from the

fact that the Abbot of St. John’s Abbey, at Colchester, was one of the

twenty-eight mitred abbots, and sat in the Upper House of Parliament.

The CARDINAL’S HAT, formerly a not uncommon sign, was displayed by a

house in Bocking forty years since, but has now disappeared. At

Coggeshall, one of the chief inns has long been known as the *CHAPEL

INN. Mr. G. F. Beaumont has kindly supplied the following information

concerning it:

“In the will of Thomas Halle of Coksale, dated Jan. 15th, 1499, and

proved Feb. 5th following, is this Bequest:--’I bequeath towarde

the edifyng and making of a Chapell within the said towne of

Coksale XX^s, to be paid when the said Chapell is in werkyng.’ In

the _Certificate of Chantry Lands_ (1549) is the following under

Coggeshall:--’Item, one olde Chaple in the Street there, with a

little Garden, which is worth by the year 4s.’”

Mr. Beaumont adds: “By deed, dated Oct. 7th, 1588, a messuage called the

old Chapel was conveyed to the fullers and weavers of Coggeshall. The

site of this building, which was pulled down in 1795, is now open

ground, on the west side of which is the CHAPEL Inn.” The sign is

probably unique. The CROSS KEYS, which represent the arms of the Papal

See, appear five times on Essex sign-boards, namely, at Saffron Walden,

*Colchester, White Notley, Dagenham, and Chadwell St. Mary, while there

is a beer-house so distinguished at North Weald. The Cross Keys have

survived the Reformation on account of their appearing also in the coats

of arms of several English sees, namely, York, Cashel, Exeter,

Gloucester, and Peterborough. Three pairs of keys crossed also form a

prominent charge in the arms of the Fishmongers’ Company (see p. 103).

Sometimes the CROSS KEYS was used as a locksmith’s sign, as may be

learned from the trade-tokens of the seventeenth century. Thus THREE

KEYS are represented on the farthing of “Thomas Haven, Locksmith, in

Chelmsford, 1669,” and the CROSSED KEYS on that of “Edward Keatchener

of Dunmow, Locksmith.” The sign of the CROWN is very common in Essex,

occurring twenty-eight times altogether. Judging from Mr. Creed’s list

(p. 7) it was equally common in Essex a century ago. There is also an

OLD CROWN at Sandon. As an emblem of Royalty, the badge of several of

our Kings and Queens, and as a very frequent heraldic bearing, the Crown

is in every way likely to be common. Larwood and Hotten (p. 101) say

that it “seems to be one of the oldest of English signs. We read of it

as early as 1467, when a certain Walter Walters, who kept the Crown in

Cheapside, made an innocent Cockney pun, saying he would make his son

heir to the Crown, which so displeased his gracious Majesty, King Edward

IV., that he ordered the man to be put to death for high treason.” The

CROWN at Romford, a once-famous hostelry, built about three centuries

ago, was demolished in the spring of 1881, when fine specimens of Tudor

work, and some massive beams beautifully carved, were brought to light.

It was once of large size, with frontages both to High Street and what

is now known as South Street. At the beginning of this century, however,

having declined before younger rivals, it was divided into shops. Later

a considerable portion was pulled down to make room for a new bank. This

demolition, and that of 1881, left nothing standing of the old house

except a portion which still remains between the Bank and the WHITE HART

Hotel. Mr. King learns from old deeds and from other sources that an inn

with the sign of the CROWN existed at Leigh in the time of Queen

Elizabeth, when it was known as the “Crown Brewery” or “Crown House,”

but it does not seem to have retained its existence later than the end

of last century or thereabouts. Mr. King believes that this was the inn

referred to by “Taylor the Water Poet,” in his _Catalogue of Tavernes_,

as being kept by a certain James Hare in 1636. No doubt it was an inn

also, for, as Mr. King remarks, “all, or nearly all, inns formerly

brewed their own beer.” He can trace it actually from 1619 and

practically from 1570. After it ceased to be an inn it was converted

into a private house and bought by a certain Francis Marriage, who

after several law-suits resold it. A CROWN also appears on the token,

dated 1667, of “Abra. Langley, iunior, of Colchester, Baymakr.” The

CROWN at *Billericay (a house not now existing) is referred to in the

_Chelmsford Chronicle_ for February 17, 1786, and the CROWN at

Chesterford is referred to in the same newspaper on the 2nd of March,

1787. Daniel Defoe, in his _Tour through Great Britain_, published in

1724, also mentions the CROWN at Chesterford. Probably this is the house

at Little Chesterford still known as the CROWN. The CROWN INN at

Brentwood, which was mentioned by Taylor in 1636, was closed many years

ago. In 1740, Salmon, who seldom noticed the inns, wrote of it as

follows in his _History and Antiquities of Essex_ (p. 262):--

“The Crown Inn here is very ancient, as appears from the buildings

of the back part of it. Mr. Symonds in his collection saith he was

informed from the Master (who had writings in custody to show it)

that it had been an Inn 300 years with this sign; that a family

named Salmon held it two hundred years; and that there had been

eighty-nine owners, amongst which [were] an Earl of Oxford and an

Earl of Sussex.”

The CROWN at Ilford finds mention in the Barking parish register as

early as 1595.[96] Fox, in his _Book of Martyrs_, says that George

Eagles, who was martyred in 1557, “was carried to the new inn, called by

the sign of the CROWN, at Chelmsford” (see p. 136). The sign does not

now appear there.

The _Builder_ of July 8, 1848, contains an illustration of a fine, old,

timber-roofed hall at Saffron Walden. Its interior, we are told, was “so

completely hidden by the subdivision of walls and ceilings within it, to

adapt it to the necessities of a dwelling-house, that until the

demolition of the buildings in the spring of the present year all that

could be seen were the carved heads of the ends of the hammer-beams.

These heads were beautifully and spiritedly carved, and, indeed, the

ornamentation of the entire hall was well and boldly cut. It was of

small dimensions.... The buildings with which it was connected were old,

but no record of the history or occupation of the place is known, except

that about two centuries ago it was an inn, the sign being the IRON

CROWN. The Hall appears to be of the time of Henry VII., judging from

its detail. It may have been the hall of some wealthy tradesman, for

Walden had many rich traders in the olden time.... The ancient hall, and

the buildings with which it was connected, have been pulled down in

order to construct a new market-place. The carved heads from the

hammer-beams (six in all) have been preserved by the Hon. R. C. Neville

(afterwards Lord Braybrooke) in his museum at Audley End.” The origin of

this sign is very doubtful. Larwood and Hotten do not notice it.

Goldsmith, in _The Traveller_, speaks of “Luke’s Iron Crown.” George and

Luke Doza were two brothers who led a revolt against the Hungarian

nobles at the beginning of the sixteenth century. They were defeated,

captured, and cruelly tortured. George, _not_ Luke (Goldsmith’s memory

must have been at fault), had, among other things, a red-hot iron crown

placed on his head. John of Leyden, an Anabaptist leader, was also

tortured to death in the same way in 1536, but it is difficult to

imagine any connection between these incidents and the inn at Saffron

Walden. What was known as the “Iron Crown of Lombardy,” was not a crown

of torture, but one of the nails used in the Crucifixion, beaten out

into a thin rim of iron, magnificently set in gold and adorned with

jewels. Charlemagne and Napoleon I. were both crowned with it, but it is

hard to see what this had to do with the inn at Saffron Walden. The sign

of the THREE CROWNS occurs at Rainham, Rowhedge, North Woolwich, and

*Halstead. The sign at the latter place was in existence forty years

ago, at which time another was also in existence. In 1668, Anne Ellis

kept the THREE CROWNS (not necessarily an inn) at Southminster, as shown

by tokens of hers, still extant. An OLD THREE CROWNS also existed in the

county in 1786 according to an advertisement in the _Chelmsford

Chronicle_ for the 5th of May in that year. There are several sources

from which the sign of the THREE CROWNS may have been derived. They

might be taken from the arms of the Essex family of Wiseman (_sable; a

chevron between three crowns argent_), or from the arms of Chich Priory

(_or; three ducal coronets, gules, two and one_), or from the arms of

the Drapers’ or the Skinners’ Companies, which have already been given.

The signs of the CROWN AND THISTLE, the CROWN AND CROOKED BILLET, and

the CROWN AND ANCHOR have all been previously noticed. The CROWN AND

SCEPTRE, which existed at Chelmsford in 1764, as we learn from an

advertisement in the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for that year, was a sign

which was doubly emblematic of Royalty. It was, doubtless, merely an

impalement. Sixty years ago there was a *CROWN AND PUNCH BOWL at

Colchester. Doubtless, it too was merely an impaled sign.

[Illustration: LEATHER BOTTLE.

(_At Pleshey._)]

Of the sign of the LEATHER BOTTLE we have three examples, situated

respectively at Little Laver, Blackmore, and Lexden. The first-named has

existed since 1789 at least. There is also a beer-house so called at

West Hanningfield. It is an old sign, taken from the “leathern bottels”

formerly used to hold liquor, and, as previously mentioned (p. 3), is

still to be seen on the cheques and over the door of Messrs. Hoare’s

Bank in Fleet Street. A beer-shop at Pleshey had on its sign-board until

recently a faded, but correct, representation of the LEATHER BOTTLE.

Under it, and on another board, is an inscription intimating that George

Philpott, the landlord, dispenses “fine Ale’s and beer at 4d. per Pott.”

The sign-board has recently been re-painted, and the bottle is not now

so well represented as formerly. Below is a figure of the old board

(with the sign-iron of the SIX BELLS at Dunmow (p. 159)), its faded

“bottle” having been restored from one of several still preserved in the

Museum at Saffron Walden. The example at Lexden had, but has not now, a

pictorial sign. The house is probably an old one under its present sign,

as it appears to have given the name of “Bottle End” to that part of the

parish in which it stands--a name it seems to have long had, it being

marked on an old map published in 1802. Mr. Thos. B. Daniell writes:

“Not every one has formed an opinion as to what a leather bottle

was like. My father--now over eighty years of age--remembers the

pictorial sign of the LEATHER BOTTLE, and says that when a boy he

distinctly recollects a veritable leather bottle being purchased at

a sale by his father. It was a cylindrical belt of black leather,

very stout, with two circular ends (also of leather) sewn in, a

double thickness of the same material over the bung-hole (which

received a cork for stopper) and a short strap to carry it by. Its

capacity was about a gallon, and it was nothing like the skin

bottles of the East, as some might suppose.”

Portions of the Rev. Baring-Gould’s _Mehalah_ are laid at the LEATHER

BOTTLE at Mersey--a fictitious name, unless there is a beer-house there

with that sign.

At Bardfield there is a beer-house with the sign of the BOOT, so

distinguished unquestionably because the landlord is also a boot and

shoe maker, as a partly pictorial board over his door informs

passers-by. His pictorial sign-board is here depicted (p. 170) within

the old sign-iron of the BELL Inn at the same place. Immediately

opposite to the BOOT is another beer-house known as the THREE

HORSESHOES, because the landlord also carries on the trade of a farrier

and blacksmith. This is not an uncommon way of naming beer-houses and

small inns. The *EVENING GUN (which may be regarded as a military sign)

appeared at Colchester sixty years ago.

[Illustration: BOOT.

(_At Great Bardfield._)]

In an agricultural county like Essex it is in no way surprising that as

many as eighteen inns should display the sign of the PLOUGH. At Great

Chishall a model of a plough, about half the usual size, set up on the

top of a pole, serves as a sign. The connection between the PLOUGH AND

HARROW, which are combined to form a sign at Leyton, is at once

apparent, but not so the connection between the PLOUGH AND SAIL, which

is an incomprehensible combination, occurring four times in the county,

and already treated of (p. 146). The sign of the HARROW occurs four

times, namely, at North Benfleet, Bulphan, *Stratford, and Hornchurch.

There is also a beer-house so called at Navestock. It may have had an

agricultural origin, but is equally likely to represent, in a corrupted

form, the portcullis, which was a favourite badge of Kings Henry VII.

and VIII., as already pointed out (p. 24). Another obviously

agricultural sign is that of the TWO HURDLES (beer-house) at Beauchamp

Roothing. The DRILL HOUSE (beer-shop) at Stanford Rivers, too, is

probably another agricultural sign. Doubtless there is, or used to be,

near it a house or shed in which a drill was kept. The DRILL INN at

Romford is, however, probably a military sign. At Boxted there is a

beer-house with the very strange and probably unique sign of the WIG AND

FIDGET. Inquiry has elicited the fact that the house was built about

forty years ago by a man who was a _Whig_ in his political views. His

neighbours regarded him also as a “fidgety man;” hence, when the house

was opened the people of the parish, having regard to its owner’s

peculiarities, named it the Whig and Fidget, otherwise the Fidgety Whig.

In Stapleford Tawney is a beer-shop with the sign of the MOLE TRAP. It

is probably unique. At Loughton is a beer-shop known as the BAG OF

NAILS. According to Larwood and Hotten, a bag of nails, with the spikes

of the nails sticking through it, was formerly a very common sign, and

may be seen on old tokens. The sign seems, in some cases at least, to

have been a corruption from the “Bacchanals.”

[Illustration: THE PORTCULLIS.

(_Badge of Henry VII._)]

Of the sign of the HOOPS we have two examples, one at Littlebury, the

other at *Saffron Walden, while a beer-house at Buttsbury is so

designated. Anciently signs were not always painted on a sign-board, as

now, but were often carved in wood and suspended within a hoop, from

which custom many inns became known as the “Something-on-the-Hoop,” and

thus the sign of the HOOPS arose.

The WELCH HARP at Waltham Abbey, probably taken from the arms of the

Principality of Wales, is presumably the modern form of the HARP, which

existed there in 1789 and long after. At the same time, and long after,

there was also a HARP at Epping, and twenty years since there was even a

JEW’S HARP at Waltham Abbey.

The STILL, which has been used as a sign at Barking for many years, is

very appropriate for a spirit-merchant. It occurs on the arms of the

Distillers’ Company, and is also depicted on the tokens issued at

Thaxted in 1666 by William Purchas, and on those issued at Witham three

years later by George Robinson. The family of Purchas was well known in

Thaxted two centuries ago. Samuel Purchas, the author of the quaint,

though celebrated, book of travels known as _Purchas, His Pilgrimes_,

was born there in 1577. Another member of the family--very possibly a

son of the William mentioned above--came to a very bad end. He murdered

his mother in a fit of drunkenness, and was hung for it about the year

1635. His “Wofull Lamentation” on the occasion is to be found in a

quaint broadside of about that date preserved in the celebrated

collection known as the _Roxburghe Ballads_ in the British Museum. A

LAST occurs on the token issued at Braintree in 1670 by Thomas Mirrils,

who was doubtless a shoemaker. A PESTLE AND MORTAR are depicted on the

token issued at Felstead in 1669 by Henry Bigg, who was probably an

apothecary. A LIME-KILN is represented on the halfpenny issued at

“Pvrflet Limekill” in 1669 by Samuel Irons, who was without doubt a

lime-burner. THREE HATS are shown on the halfpenny tokens issued by

“Barge Allen at the [Three Hats] at Stebbing in Essex,” and a HAT on

those issued at Stebbing in 1668 by Richard Sayer, who doubtless kept

the same house. The Rev. W. H. Beckett of Stebbing has inquired of the

oldest inhabitants of the town (two of them being over ninety) without

being able to hear of any tradition as to these signs. Both Allen and

Sayer have been, but are no longer, Stebbing names. The TWO PIPES

crossed, which appear on the tokens of Samuel Leader of Saffron Walden

in 1653, of William Leader of “Safforn Wallding” in 1668, and of William

Martin of “Brayntry,” the THREE TOBACCO-PIPES, which are represented on

the tokens issued in 1666 by “Miles Hacklvitt in Bilrekey in Essex,” and

in 1668 by “Thomas Warrin of Waltham Abby,” and the ROLL OF TOBACCO,

which is depicted on the token of “Iohn King, grocer, in Cooldchester,”

were probably, all of them, more or less, tobacconists’ signs. The

latter, indeed, is a very common tobacconist’s sign at the present day.

A WOODEN PAIL occurs on the token issued in Moulsham in 1666 by Thomas

Joyce, who was perhaps a cooper, and a BUNDLE OF YARN on that of “Iohn

Hance of Kelvedon, clothier, 1669.” At Epping a large KETTLE, painted

red and suspended before a house, indicates that tea and hot water are

obtainable within.

There still remain to be noticed several signs which are in use at the

present day, though they are not public-house signs. Several such have

already been alluded to, as, for instance, the BLACK BOY and the TOBACCO

ROLL for a tobacconist, and the BUNCH OF GRAPES for a vintner. The COW

or a CALF, too, forms the recognized sign of a dairyman. At Witham a

harness-maker displays a harnessed HORSE’S HEAD, life-size, as his sign.

Many similar instances of tradesmen, other than publicans, displaying

signs indicative of their trades might be named throughout the county.

Few public-house signs, however, are more familiar than the THREE GOLDEN

BALLS displayed by pawnbrokers. The device is a truly heraldic one, the

balls being taken, according to Messrs. Larwood and Hotten (p. 128),

from--

“The lower part of the coat of arms of the Dukes of Medici, from

whose states, and from Lombardy, nearly all the early bankers came.

These capitalists also advanced money on valuable goods, and hence

gradually became pawnbrokers. The arms of the Medicis family were

_five besants azure_, whence the balls formerly were blue, and only

within the last half century have assumed a golden exterior,

evidently to gild the pill for those who have dealings with ‘my

uncle’: as for the position in which they are placed, the popular

explanation is that there are two chances to one that whatever is

brought there will not be redeemed.”

According to the same authors (p. 341), the BARBER’S POLE dates from the

time when barbers practised phlebotomy: the patient undergoing this

operation had to grasp the pole in order to make the blood flow more

freely. This use of the pole is illustrated in more than one illuminated

MS. As the pole was, of course, liable to be stained with blood, it was

painted red: when not in use barbers were in the habit of suspending it

outside the door with the white linen swathing-bands twisted round it;

this, in later times, gave rise to the pole being painted red and white,

or black and white, or even with red, white, and blue lines winding

round it. The POLE was also once a tooth-drawer’s sign. In some cases,

too, it is probable that it was intended punningly to indicate the fact

that the barber who displayed it attended to the needs of peoples’

polls. Presumably it formed the sign of Roger Giles, who is said to have

circulated the following amusing advertisement in the neighbourhood of

Romford:--

“Roger Giles, Imperceptible Penetrator, Surgin, Paroch Clarke,

Etc:, Etc:, Romford, Essex, hinforms Ladis and Gentlemen that he

cuts their teeth and draws corns without waiten a moment. Blisters

on the lowest turms, and fysicks at a penny a peace. Sells

godfathers cordial and strap-ile, and undertakes to keep any Ladis

nales by the year, and so on. Young Ladis and Gentlemen tort the

heart of rideing, and the gramer language in the natest manner,

also grate Kare takein to himprove their morals and spelling, sarm

singing and whisseling. Teaches the jews-arp, and instructs young

Ladis on the gar-tar, and plays the ho-boy. Shotish poker and all

other reels tort at home and abroad. Perfumery in all its branches.

Sells all sorts of stashionary, barth bricks and all other sorts of

sweetmeats, including bees-wax, postage stamps and lusifers:

likewise taturs, roobub, sossages, and other garden stufs: also

fruits, such as hardbake, inguns, toothpicks, ile and tin ware, and

other eatables. Sarve, treacle, winegar, and all other hardware.

Further in particular, he has laid in a stock of tripe, china,

epsom salts, lollipops, and other pickles, such as oysters, apples,

and table beer, also silks, satins, and hearthstones, and all kinds

of kimistry, including waxdolls, rasors, dutch cloks, and

gridirons, and new laid eggs evry day by me Roger Giles. P.S.--I

lectures on joggrefy.”

Two very quaint, though modern, tradesmen’s signs are now to be seen in

the town of Thaxted, one belonging to a sweep, the other to a farrier.

The former is situated at the end of the town nearest Dunmow, and

consists of a large picture representing a wide, empty street of houses.

A chimney belonging to one of these houses is belching forth flame and

smoke like a volcano, and a man is just giving the alarm with much

shouting and gesticulation. At the opposite end of the town a farrier

displays as his sign a device rudely cut out of tin or thin sheet-iron,

and representing a horse, held by a boy, and being shod by the man. The

affair evidently once formed a weather-cock, and its appearance in its

present position gives it a decidedly comical aspect.

None of our Essex inns appear to have names quite as jocose as that of

a small public-house to be seen on an unusually long, straight, and

uninteresting road near the city of York. It is called the SLIP INN, and

probably a good many do “slip in” to relieve the weariness of the way.

Nor do our inn-keepers seem able to compete with one at Leigh in

Lancashire, who merely places over his door the pithy inscription:--“My

sign’s in the cellar.”

With this we will conclude our examination of “The Trade Signs of

Essex.” All that it is now possible to do towards bringing to light

their much-obscured meanings and original significance, has been done,

and it only remains for the author to express the hope that the reader

will deem the result satisfactory.

FINIS.

_A GLOSSARY OF THE PRINCIPAL HERALDIC TERMS USED IN THE FOREGOING

CHAPTERS._

_Affrontée_, full-faced and fronting.

_Argent_, silver or white.

_Azure_, blue.

_Badge_, see p. 15.

_Besant_, a Byzantine coin, represented in Heraldry as a round flat

piece of gold, without impress.

_Blazon_, the proper technical description of armorial bearings.

_Charge_, an heraldic bearing or emblem.

_Chequy_, a shield divided by horizontal and perpendicular lines

into equal square spaces, alternately tinctured.

_Chevron_, a charge resembling the rafters of a house.

_Colours_, azure, gules, vert, sable, or purpure.

_Couchant_, an animal lying down.

_Couped_, the head or limb of any animal cut off by an even line.

_Crest_, see p. 15.

_Dexter_, the right hand.

_Escutcheon_, a shield of arms.

_Escalop_, a fan-shell, the pilgrim’s badge.

_Fess_, a broad horizontal bar across the centre of a shield.

_Fess dancetté_, an indented or zig-zag fess.

_Field_, the ground or surface of the shield.

_Guardant_, full-faced.

_Gules_, red.

_Impaled_, side by side on the same shield.

_Issuant_, coming out of.

_Lozengy_, a shield divided by transverse diagonal lines into equal

lozenge-shaped spaces.

_Metals_, or (gold) and argent (silver).

_Or_, gold.

_Ordinaries_, certain common heraldic charges, such as the fess,

the pale, the chevron, &c.

_Pale_, a broad perpendicular bar down the centre of the shield.

_Passant_, an animal walking past.

_Proper_, of natural colour.

_Quartered_, or _quarterly_, a shield divided into four quarters.

_Reguardant_, looking back.

_Sable_, black.

_Saltire_, a broad cross of St. Andrew on the shield.

_Sejant_, seated.

_Sinister_, left hand.

_Statant_, standing.

_Supporters_, animals which support the shield (see p. 14).

_Vert_, green.

_Volant_, flying.

[Illustration] INDEX.

NOTE.--_An asterisk indicates that the sign named is not noted as now

occurring or as having occurred, in Essex._

Abbey Gate, 157.

Adam and Eve, 37, 130.

Admiral Rous, 121.

_Agricultural Signs_, 170.

Albert, 124.

Albert House, 124.

Albion, 153.

Alma Arms, 44.

Alma (Tavern), 154.

Anchor, 7, 147.

Anchor and Hope, 147.

Ancient Foresters, 130.

Angel, 2, 7, 67, 127, 132.

Angel and Harp, 133.

Angel and Trumpet,* 18.

Apothecaries’ Arms, 39.

Archer and Stag, 49.

_Arms_, 14, 30.

Artichoke, 110.

Artillery-man, 128.

_Astronomical Signs_, 148.

Axe and Compasses, 35.

Babe and Tun,* 25.

_Badges_, 15.

Bag of Nails, 171.

Bakers’ Arms, 33, 115.

Bald-faced Stag, 7, 46.

Bald Hind, 7, 46.

Bald Stag, 7, 47.

Balmoral Castle, 153.

Barber’s Pole, 2, 173.

Barber-Surgeons’ Arms, 38.

Barge, 145.

Barley Mow, 111.

Bay Tree, 107.

Bear, 81.

Beavers, 24, 43.

Beehive, 103.

_Beer-house Signs_, 26.

Bell, 7, 13, 102, 150, 157, 169.

Bell and Anchor, 22, 159.

Bell and Feathers, 102, 159.

Bell and Neat’s Tongue,* 21.

Berechurch Arms, 31.

Betting Stand, 157.

Bird in Hand, 101.

Bishop Blays, 123.

Blackbirds, 100.

Black Boy, 2, 12, 71, 133, 173.

Black Bull, 7, 65, 126.

Black Dog, 75.

Black Horse, 56.

Black Lion, 7, 60.

Black Mullet, 152.

Blacksmiths’ Arms, 32.

Black Swan, 7, 94.

Blucher’s Head, 121.

Blue Anchor, 147.

Blue Boar, 5, 7, 13, 68, 69, 161.

Blue Boar’s Head, 68, 70.

Blue Lion, 13, 60.

Blue Posts, 156.

Boar’s Head, 34, 69, 70.

_Booksellers’ Signs_, 2.

Boot, 169.

Borough Arms, 30.

_Botanical Signs_, 107.

_Bovine Signs_, 64.

Bowling Green, 154.

Brewers’ Arms, 32.

Brick and Tile (Inn), 153.

Bricklayers’ Arms, 34.

Bridge (Hotel), 153.

Britannia, 130.

British (Inn), 153.

British Lion, 59.

British Queen, 125.

Buck’s Horns, 50.

Bugle Horn, 51, 128.

Bull, 7, 64, 131.

Bull and Butcher,* 23.

Bull and Crown, 21, 65.

Bull and Horseshoe, 21, 58, 65.

Bullen Butchered,* 23.

Bull’s Head, 7, 34, 65.

Bunch of Grapes, 173.