At Buckhurst Hill there is also a Roebuck, as well as a Reindeer. The former is marked on Cary’s map, published in 1768, and is probably the same house several times spoken of (p. 6) as the Buck in The Trials of John Swan and Elizabeth Jeffries, published in 1752. It is still one of the best and most widely-known inns on the Forest. In its large Assembly Room public gatherings often take place. The old Reindeer, which is shown on Cary’s map, published in 1768, is now a private house, inhabited by Captain Mackenzie, the Forest Superintendent, and known as “Warren House.” The present Reindeer is situated about a mile distant from the old one. An Archer shooting at a stag is also depicted on the undated halfpenny token of “John Unwin at Layton Stone.”
It is in every way probable that the fallow deer, formerly living in the surrounding forests of Epping and Hainault, and still existing in considerable numbers in the former, gave rise in some way to these numerous cervine signs in and around the parish of Buckhurst Hill. It is, however, a moot point whence the parish derived its name. Some connect the name with Lord Buckhurst, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth; others regard it as composed of two Anglo-Saxon words, Boc, a beech, and hurst, a wood or forest, which is not unlikely to be the true derivation; others, however, state that this part of the forest was severed from the remainder by Royal Charter, and so termed Book-hurst, meaning book-forest; while yet others consider the name to mean Buckhurst, the wood or forest in which bucks lived. The latter derivation seems in every way the most likely one. Nevertheless, the place was formerly often called “Buckit’s Hill,” as, for instance, in The Trial of John Swan and Elizabeth Jeffries (p. 8), published in 1752, but this was probably a corruption. The farthing of “William Locken in Tollsbvry in Esex, 1668,” bore a Stag, and that of “John Attewell in Black Notle in Esex, 1670,” bore Three Stags’ Heads couped, probably taken from the coat of arms of some private family. The Stag’s Head at Colchester is also, probably, a form of some family crest. Forty years ago there was a Doe Inn at Halstead. There is now a Stag at Hatfield Heath, and another at Little Easton. Concerning the latter, there can be very little doubt that it represents the crest of the Maynard family (a stag statant or). It would be interesting to learn whether this house has come to be known as the Stag after having first been called the Maynard Arms. The Stag also serves as a beer-house sign at High Ongar. It is not very easy to say what first led to the Reindeer being used as a sign; but that it was in use as early as the
seventeenth century is clear from what Pepys says in his Diary. He tells us that on the night of October 7, 1667, he “lay very well” at the “Rayne-deere at Bishop Stafford” (meaning Bishops Stortford), where the sign is still in existence. The same sign also occurs at Takeley, Black Notley, and (as already mentioned) Buckhurst Hill, having been probably set up at the latter place in order to keep company with the other kinds of deer that are found there. The Reindeer at Takeley has been in existence since 1786 at least, as it is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle on January 20th in that year. At Greenstead, near Colchester, there is to be seen the sign of the Buck’s Horns, which is very likely intended to represent the deer’s “attires” in somebody’s coat of arms. The sign is not mentioned by Larwood and Hotten. The Horns at Barking Side may have had the same origin, or the house may have taken its sign from the noted tavern of the same name which formerly existed in Fleet Street. The residence at Newport, now commonly known as the Crown House (from the crown sculptured over the door), or Nell Gwynne’s House, used formerly to be an inn. Its present names have been given to it within living memory. Mr. C. K. Probert states[49] that in the time of his father, eighty or ninety years ago, there was a tradition still lingering in the town that the inn was formerly known as the Horns, and that Charles II., The Duke of York, and Nell Gwynne used to stop there on their way from London to Newmarket races. This circumstance is alluded to in an old folio history of the Rye House Plot, and Mr. Probert has seen a play, printed about seventy years ago, in which the scene was laid at the Horns at Newport, the characters being Charles II., Nell Gwynne, the Duke of York, &c. Mr. Probert writes:
“Tradition says they used to come with packhorses by the Great North Road, viâ Rickling and the lane near Wicken Bonhunt, still called ‘London Lane;’ then along the ancient road at the foot of Bury Field in Newport; then along the back of the Burywater House, and so emerging opposite the Crown House.”
The Horn Hotel in the High Street at Braintree is a well-known old coaching inn, and has long been one of the best in the town. If the late Mr. Joseph Strutt is to be believed, this house, at the beginning of the present century, was known as the Bugle Horn. In his Essex and Herts romance, entitled Queenhoo Hall, published in 1808, the hero relates (ii. p. 180) that “we took some dinner at the Bugle Horn at Braintree, and proceeded in the afternoon to Dunmow, where we arrived before sunset.” In any case, this sign, like that of the Horn and Horseshoes at Harlow Common, is probably connected with the old coaching days. The sound of the horn and of the horses’ shoes would be the first intimation of the approach of a stage-coach. The latter sign, however, may have some heraldic significance, as Larwood and Hotten mention a London token of 1666 on which a horseshoe is represented within a pair of antlers or deer’s attires. In 1789, too, it seems to have been the Horns and Horseshoes. The Bugle Horn might easily be connected either with coaching, hunting, or heraldry, were it not situated in Barrack Street, *Colchester. This, of course, makes it in every way probable that it is a military sign. Here, also, must be noticed the popular sign of the White Hart. This device appears to be unusually common in the county of Essex. Nearly every town or village of any consequence possesses an example. At present we have no less than fifty, and twenty years ago the number was exactly the same. London itself cannot boast of having more, as it has also just fifty examples of the sign. The White Hart in the High Street at Brentwood is in all respects the most notable house now displaying this sign in Essex. In its best days it was a coaching inn of great importance, and is still by far the best hotel in the town. Mr. H. W. King has ascertained that it was in existence under its present name in the time of Queen Elizabeth; but, looking at the house itself, he believes it to be of still earlier date, perhaps of the fifteenth century, or even earlier. It is certainly one of the very best examples of an old-fashioned inn, with a central courtyard and galleries running round it, now remaining in England. It is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle for September 14, 1764, as a stopping-place for the coaches “which set out on Monday the 27th instant at 7 o’clock in the morning from the Black Bull in Bishopsgate, London, and at the same time from the Great White Horse Inn[50] in Ipswich, and continue every day (Sunday excepted) to be at the above places the same evening at 5 o’clock. Each passenger to pay 3 pence per mile and to be allowed 18 pounds luggage,” &c.
During the reign of Elizabeth the White Hart was also the principal inn in the town of Saffron Walden, but it is not now known in what street the house was situated. Possibly the inn now known as the Hoops, in King Street, was the White Hart of those days, as it is a very ancient structure. Boyne describes a farthing bearing the Grocers’ Arms, and issued by “Anne Mathews, in Safforn Walden, 1656.” Mr. H. Ecroyd Smith has ascertained, from the registers in the church, that a few years later she married John Potter of the White Hart, and also that they thereupon jointly issued fresh tokens, retaining her name, arms, and date on the obverse, but having a new reverse, bearing the words “John Potter,” and in the centre a hart lodged with the monogram “I.A. P.” over it, perhaps to indicate that they continued to carry on their two trades simultaneously. On the 25th of February, 1659, Pepys says in his Diary: “Mr. Blayton and I took horse, and straight to Saffron Walden, where, at the White Hart, we set up our horses, and took the master of the house [in all probability the aforesaid John Potter] to show us Audly End House.” References to this inn occur early on in the records of the Corporation of Walden. Thus, in 1627, 14s. was expended “for wine when the Earl of Sussex was at the White Hart;” in 1631, 9s. was “spent at the White Hart when we ourselves did ring for the king;” in 1643, 2s. 10d. was “payd at the White Hart when Radcliffe was taken for a Jesuit;” and in 1661, the sum of 3s. 4d. was “spent at the White Hart when the ryot was, some of the company being there.” The White Hart on a sign-board at Boreham is correctly and heraldically represented, but has evidently, in the mind of the artist, been associated with the deer in Boreham Park, as a view of Boreham House has been introduced in the background. The White Hart at Great Yeldham is a very ancient village hostel. Its windows, and its exterior generally, are quaint and antique. In front of the inn, on each side of the door, are old oaken settles, whereon the village sages debate the topics of the day. From the sign-board on the Green opposite, the white hart has long since departed. The White Hart in Tindal Street, *Chelmsford, has a new and large graven sign, heraldically represented, and prominently projected over the street. The White Hart at *Witham, too, has a large and rather grotesque sign, though it is correctly represented. It is rudely cut out of what appears to be a thin sheet of iron, and is suspended over the pavement. The White Hart at *Coggeshall—doubtless the existing hotel—is mentioned in Bufton’s Diary in 1678.[51] It is also recorded in Bufton’s Diary[52] that “In April, 1682, there was ye floore of a Chamber fell downey at ye White Hart at Bocking [probably the still existing Hotel of that name], where ye Justices sat and about 200 people in ye roome, and one man broke his leg.” In an early number of the Gentleman’s Magazine is an illustration of an old inscribed beam from the White Hart between Springfield and Boreham. Mr. J. A. Repton in a note says that the building was thought to have been a hermitage. He adds: “There is a long inscription at the bottom of one of the gables, but it is at present concealed with plaster;” “that the beam measured 52 inches by seven; and that it bore the inscription, ‘Jesus! Mercy! Lady help! Jesus!’ ” Taylor, in his Catalogue of Tavernes, mentions a White Hart at *Romford in 1636, probably the hotel of that name still existing there. An inn with this sign at Colchester is mentioned in one of the old Corporation records, dated 1603, as being an “auncyent inne” at that time. In old deeds Mr. H. W. King finds mention of a White Hart—either inn, shop, or tenement—at Horndon-on-the-Hill in both 1704 and 1719. There does not seem to be any apparent reason why the white hart should have become so common a device as a sign as it has done. According to Larwood and Hotten, its use dates from a very remote period; but there can be very little doubt that its present abundance is due to the fact that a White Hart lodged, collared and chained or, was the favourite badge of King Richard II., and appears, with variations, no less than eighty-three times upon his monument at Westminster. At a tournament held in Smithfield in 1390, in honour of various foreign counts who had been elected members of the garter—
“All the kynges house were of one sute; theyr cotys, theyr armys, theyr sheldes, and theyr trappours were bowdrid all with whyte hertys, with crownes of gold about their neck, and cheyns of gold hanging thereon, which hertys was the kinges leverye that he gaf to lordes, ladyes, knyghtes and squyers, to know his household people from others.”
The White Hart was also used as a badge by Edward IV. It is just possible that the fact of the crest of the Maynard family being a stag, as already mentioned, has something to do with the abundance of the White Hart as a sign in Essex, or at least in the northern parts of the county. It is possible, too, that the abundance of this sign in Essex may be due in part to the fact that a very ancient and famous White Hart formerly stood in Bishopsgate Street Without, in such a position that it would probably form a stopping-place for most travellers to and from London along the Great East Road. Timbs, in his Clubs and Club-life in London (p. 397), says that it was originally built in 1480, but the old house was pulled down and rebuilt in modern style in 1829. Allusion has already been made (p. 25) to an absurd corruption of this sign at West Bergholt, where the landlord of the White Hart, not content with a script sign, has added a pictorial one of his own designing, representing a large White Heart on a black ground! Whether this has been done through ignorance or intent, it is a good example of the way signs become corrupted and altered in the course of time. Illustrations of both forms are given above.