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:

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.

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.”

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—

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:—

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.

INDEX.

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, Y