Read Ebook: The Trade Signs of Essex A popular account of the origin and meanings of the public houses & other signs by Christy Miller

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Ebook has 934 lines and 70877 words, and 19 pages

"Now many a sign at Woodford Town, Its Inn-vitation tells; But Huggins, full of ills, of course, Betook him to the WELLS."

"To Newport Pond my course I next way bent, And in at the sign of the Black Bull went. Where scarcely in a room I had set down, When in came my old friends, kind Mr. Br ... And Mr. Woo ..., two who love their friend With true and hearty love unto the end; For though they in another town do live, They to their neighbour some kind visits give. 'Twas twelve o'clock; dinner time did approach, When men whet knives on wheels of cart or coach. The cloth was laid, and by the scent o' th' meat, One might perceive there something was to eat. And so it proved, indeed; for from the pot Came forth a rump of beef, was piping hot, And from the spit was brought a loyn of mutton, Would satisfy the stomack of a glutton, For like a loyn of beef it might well have been knighted, To which our hostess kindly us invited; Which we accepted of, and to delight her, Told her that none could deny such an inviter; For she's a widow of such excellent carriage, Would make a man most happy in her marriage," &c.

"Hans pes withe yore nebor whilom ye maye, For oftyn tymes favore do the passe withe ye daye."

This may be translated as follows:--

"Be at peace with your neighbour while ye may, For often times the favour will pass with the day."

"The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar That spoiled your summer fields and fruitful vines; ... This foul swine ... lies now ... Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn."

It is related that in this king's reign one William Collingbourne was executed for composing the following couplet:--

"The Cat, the Rat, and Lovell our Dog, Rule all Englonde under an Hogge."

The king and his ministers, Sir Richard Ratcliffe, Sir William Catesby, and Lord Lovell, were, of course, thus referred to. At Earls Colne, as already stated , there is a LION AND BOAR. Here, in all probability, we have again represented the boar of the De Veres, Colne Priory having been another seat of the family, some members of which lie buried there. Other signs, which have, in all probability, been derived from other badges of the De Veres, will be noticed hereafter.

In a hunting district like Essex it is in no way surprising that there should be as many as twenty-five references to the fox on our sign-boards. Although twenty years ago the sign of the Fox only occurred five times, it now occurs eleven times; while there are ten signs of the FOX AND HOUNDS, and three of the FOX AND GOOSE. The latter is a combination which mediaeval artists never tired of representing. It may be seen, among other places, on a carved oak screen in Hadstock Church. Of the FLYING FOX at Colchester, Larwood and Hotten say --"It may represent some kind of bat or flying squirrel so denominated, or is a landlord's caprice." It seems much more probable, however, that the device is intended to represent a fox flying before the hounds.

There is a beer-house known as the WOLF at Great Coggeshall. The origin of the sign, which is not mentioned by Larwood and Hotten, is hard to explain. Probably it is unique.

"A great mart for cattle from Wales, Scotland, and the North of England is held annually, from the latter end of February till the beginning of May, on the flat part of the forest of Waltham , within the parishes of Ilford, Eastham, Westham, Leyton, and Wanstead. A great part of the business between the dealers is transacted at the RABBITS in this parish--on the high road."

There is also a beer-shop known as the RABBITS in Stapleford Tawney parish. It is probably named after the foregoing. There is another beer-house so called at West Thurrock. Larwood and Hotten do not mention the sign under any of the above forms, although they say that in 1667 Hugh Conny, of Caxton and Elsworth, Cambridge, had THREE CONIES for a sign, and a RABBIT is depicted on the farthing token of one William Hutchenson, of Chelmsford.

Of the ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, a very old device, we have two instances in Essex, one at Harwich, and the other at Colchester. Neither seems to have been in existence twenty years ago. Most probably they are named after the famous old coaching inn at Newington Butts; but they may have originally been cutlers' signs. The elephant with a castle on his back formed the crest of the Cutlers' Company. At Great Baddow, Rayleigh, and elsewhere the device serves as a beer-house sign.

The SQUIRREL'S HEAD at Squirrel's Heath, Romford, has no doubt some connection with the locality. It was not in existence forty years ago. The sign of the THREE SQUIRRELS, which is not found in Essex, has been in use for over two centuries.

"There is a pair of whale's ribs placed over the old toll-gate at Chadwell Heath, near Romford, Essex, which form a kind of Gothic arch across the roadway. They must have been there for a considerable period, as it is beyond the memory of any of the good old country-folks living in the locality to tell when first erected. At a little distance from the toll-house occurs a similar pair, set up over the carriage entrance to a residence."

Afterwards "S. P." wrote as follows:--

"When I was a boy, there stood by the roadside, about two miles west of Romford, at the east end of the long straggling village of Chadwell Heath, and on the left hand going from London, a tremendous pair of bones, forming an arch. The bases were deeply rooted in the earth, but even then the space spanned was considerable. Near by was a toll-house, with its bar, known from the adjacent relic as 'Whalebone Gate.' I think, too, if I remember rightly, there stood near the spot a road-side inn called by the sign of 'the WHALEBONE.' My father, an Essex man, long since dead, used to tell me that he had it from his grandfather, that the bone was the upper jaw of an immense whale, which had been cast ashore about three miles to the south of the spot, on the north bank of the Thames, at Dagenham, while the Great Storm was raging on the night that Oliver Cromwell died. In course of time, toll on suburban roads was abolished; the toll-house and gate were cleared away; and the jaw was appropriated to serve as an entrance arch to the front garden of a neighbouring suburban villa--the rural residence, I believe, of a Whitechapel pork-butcher--an edifice known, and still indicated on suburban maps of a tolerably modern date, as 'Whalebone House.' ... What became of the worthy tradesman I have above alluded to, I do not know. Probably his house is still standing, but I am unable to identify it now by its former title or peculiar gate. I am under the impression that what remains of the relic has been transferred to its original site; for I was past the spot where, so far as my memory serves me, it formerly stood, on July 25th in this year. Half the arch stood upright, still deeply rooted in the earth, but alone, forgotten and deserted, by the side of the high road in a fallow field. No one in the neighbourhood seemed to know anything about it or its history."

To this, Mr. J. A. Sparvel-Bayly, of Billericay, wrote :--

"In the little village of East Tilbury in Essex, situate on the banks of the Thames, and not far from Romford, is a house known as 'Whalebone Cottage,' in front of which is an arch composed of the jawbones of a huge whale. From their weather-worn appearance they may possibly have belonged to that alluded to by S. P."

In reply to this, Mr. W. Phillips stated that--

"The jawbones spoken of by Mr. Sparvel-Bayly as being at East Tilbury, 'not far from Romford' , cannot be identical with those mentioned by S. P., whose account I can corroborate, so far as knowing the jawbones he mentions, forty years ago, when travelling on the box-seat of the old Colchester Coach alongside a coachman of the Mr. Weller sort, of some sixty-five summers. The two bones were then in existence on the north side of the road near the tenth milestone, and two miles the London side of Romford, in front of a roadside public-house with the sign of the 'WHALEBONE,' which my coachman said used to be the resort of the many highwaymen that once infested Chadwell Heath close by. He spoke of his being told when a boy that the bones had been there from the time of Cromwell."

Feet. Inches. Height out of ground 15 6 Circumference 3 3 1/2 " 2 0 Breadth at base 1 5 " 1 10 1/2

If, as seems probable, the bones are those of the Greenland whale , it is extremely unlikely that the creature which owned them was ever stranded in the Thames. The following letter from Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., is of much interest. He says--

"Pairs of the lower jawbones of the Greenland whale, erected usually as gate-posts, occur in many parts of the eastern counties, especially in the neighbourhood of the old whaling-ports--the Thames, Yarmouth, Hull, Whitby, &c. They have all been brought from the Arctic Seas by whalers, at any time since 1611, when the first ships left England for the Spitzbergen whaling, which has been carried on with more or less success ever since, though now confined to Peterhead and Dundee. I very much doubt Defoe's '28 feet long.' Twenty feet, following the curve, is the maximum of the Greenland whale, and no other whale has such large jaws. I also doubt the story of the creature being stranded, because, if so, it cannot have been a Greenland whale--a species which never visits our shores."

It will here be necessary to ask pardon of modern men of science for discussing, under the heading "Zoology," certain monstrous beasts which, though unknown to us in these enlightened times, were accredited with a material existence by the ancient heralds, and others who wrote in the dark days of several centuries ago. Such imaginary creatures as dragons, griffins, unicorns, and the like, are, of course, here referred to.

"To save a mayd, St. George the Dragon slew-- A pretty tale, if all that's told be true. Most say there are no dragons, and 'tis sayd There was no George;--let's hope there was a mayd."

A representation of St. George killing the Dragon appears on the token issued by J. Lark of Coggeshall in 1667.

Ornithological signs stand next in turn for notice. They are fairly numerous, and many are of strictly heraldic derivation.

"An Essex Landlord of some fame, Whose honesty deserves a name, Near to the Forest hangs his sign, A house well known for Bowls of wine. It represents a lovely boy, Such as would give a father joy; Beside him Stands the majestic kingly Bird, And both are named and known together, As birds are known that's of one feather."

Yet although of this sign there's no such thing, It was a sign there was good drink within."

"It is undoubtedly an old building; but it is questionable whether it can properly lay claim to the antiquity that is locally assigned to it; for in it, according to tradition, the body of Queen Eleanor remained for the night preceding its solemn entry into London. Salmon considers this inn to have been the original manor-house of the honour of Richmond; and Gough says that it 'bears marks of great antiquity in the forms of its chimneys, and the quantity of chestnut timber employed about it.' A large signboard, supported on tall posts, placed on the opposite sides of the way, swings across the road, having on it the inscription, 'Ye Olde Foure Swannes Hostelrie, 1260.'"

"A bird in hand is better far, Than two that in the bushes are."

This class of signs--or rather combination of several small groups, taken together for the sake of convenience--is, naturally, very far from a large one. It contains, indeed, only four signs, all told.

The FISH AND EELS, which is a very strange device appearing at Roydon, is our only existing sign connected with fish, although TWO FISHES appeared on the tokens of the two William Wildmans of Saffron Walden, issued in 1656 and 1667 respectively. The former spells the name Saffron Wallding. The sign, perhaps, originated in the arms of the Fishmongers' Company. Larwood and Hotten do not notice the Fish and Eels, although this house has displayed the sign since 1789 at least. It may be a meaningless impalement.

The next great class of signs which will be noticed includes those which are derived from the Vegetable Kingdom. These may be called "Botanical Signs." Though not so numerous as the Zoological Signs, they are, nevertheless, fairly common; but only a comparatively small number can be traced back to an heraldic origin.

"Our first stage is to Mistley; we stop at the Thorn, And shall see the fine sights which that village adorn."

"As customers come, and I do trust them, I lose my money, likewise my custom; Though chalk is cheap, say what you will, Chalk won't pay the brewer's bill; So I must try to keep a decent tap, For ready-money and no strap."

"In the year 1775, there stood upon the Borders of Epping Forest, at a distance of about twelve miles from London--measuring from the standard in Cornhill, or rather from the spot on or near to which the standard used to be in days of yore--a house of public entertainment called the Maypole; which fact was demonstrated to all such travellers as could neither read nor write by the emblem reared on the roadside over against the house, which, if not of those goodly proportions that maypoles were wont to present in olden times, was a fair young ash, thirty feet in height, and as straight as any arrow that ever English yeoman drew.

"The Maypole--by which term henceforth is meant the house and not its sign--the Maypole was an old building, with more gable ends than a lazy man would care to count on a sunny day; huge zig-zag chimneys, out of which it seemed as though even smoke could not choose but come in more than naturally fantastic shapes, imparted to it in its tortuous progress; and vast stables, gloomy, ruinous, and empty. The place was said to have been built in the days of King Henry the Eighth; and there was a legend not only that Queen Elizabeth had slept there one night while upon a hunting excursion, to wit in a certain oak panelled room with a deep bay-window, but that next morning, while standing on a mounting-block before the door with one foot in the stirrup, the virgin monarch had then and there boxed and cuffed an unlucky page for some neglect of duty. The matter-of-fact and doubtful folks, of whom there were a few among the Maypole customers, as unluckily there always are in every little community, were inclined to look upon this tradition as rather apocryphal; but, whenever the landlord of that ancient hostelry appealed to the mounting-block itself as evidence, and triumphantly pointed out that there it stood in the same place to that very day, the doubters never failed to be put down by a large majority, and all true believers exulted, as in a victory.

"Whether these, and many other stories of the like nature, were true or untrue, the Maypole was really an old house, a very old house, perhaps as old as it claimed to be, and perhaps older, which will sometimes happen with houses of an uncertain, as with ladies of a certain, age. Its windows were all diamond-pane lattices, its floors were sunken and uneven, its ceilings blackened by the hand of time and heavy with massive beams. Over the doorway was an ancient porch, quaintly and grotesquely carved; and here on summer evenings the more favoured customers smoked and drank--ay, and sang many a good song too, sometimes--reposing on two grim-looking high-backed settles, which, like the twin dragons of some fairy tale, guarded the entrance to the mansion.

"In the chimneys of the disused rooms, swallows had built their nests for many a long year, and from earliest spring to latest autumn whole colonies of sparrows chirped and twittered in the eaves. There were more pigeons about the dreary stable-yard and outbuildings than anybody but the landlord could reckon up. The wheeling and circling flights of runts, fantails, tumblers, and pouters, were perhaps not quite consistent with the grave and sober character of the building, but the monotonous cooing, which never ceased to be raised by some among them all day long, suited it exactly, and seemed to lull it to rest. With its overhanging storys, drowsy little panes of glass, and front bulging out and projecting over the pathway, the old house looked as if it were nodding in its sleep. Indeed it needed no very great stretch of fancy to detect in it other resemblances to humanity. The bricks of which it was built had originally been a deep dark red, but had grown yellow and discoloured like an old man's skin; the sturdy timbers had decayed like teeth; and here and there the ivy, like a warm garment to comfort it in its age, wrapped its green leaves closely round the time-worn walls.

"It was a hale and hearty age, though, still; and in the summer or autumn evenings, when the glow of the setting sun fell upon the oak and chestnut trees of the adjacent forest, the old house, partaking of its lustre, seemed their fit companion, and to have many good years of life in him yet."

"My liquor's good, My measure's just, Excuse me, sirs, I cannot trust."

Over the fireplace was seen these lines:--

"All you who stand Before the fire, I pray sit down. It's my desire That other folks As well as you May see the fire And feel it too."

An inscription upon the stable-door ran as follows:--

"Whoever smokes tobacco here, Shall forfeit sixpense to spend in beer. Your pipes lay by when you come here, Or fire to me may prove severe."

It was from the Rose and Crown, where Mr. Eve Doth keep a house like to an Under Sheriff; There is good Sack, good French wine and good Beer.

There, at my parting, some kind friends of mine, Would needs bestow on me a quart of wine, Where, with stout drinking, ere my parting hour, That quart was made at least a three or four. Yet would my jovial friends on me attend, Part of my journey unto Audley End."

The next class of signs to be treated of is that which includes those derived from "Man and His Parts," as the old books on Heraldry have it. Such signs may be styled "Human Signs." They are numerous, though usually of but very slight interest; and, as might be expected, very few are of heraldic origin. In speaking of them it will not be necessary to give much more than a mere list. The numerous "heads" obviously indicate a portrait once to have been the sign; and most of these portraits represent persons of very modern fame. Many Human Signs have already been noticed under the heading "Arms," and elsewhere, and it will be quite unnecessary to refer to them again.

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