PREFACE.
“Prefaces to books [says a learned author] are like signs to public-houses. They are intended to give one an idea of the kind of entertainment to be found within.”
STUDENT of the ancient and peculiarly interesting Art of Heraldry can hardly fail, at an early period in his researches, to be struck with the idea that some connection obviously exists between the various “charges,” “crests,” “badges,” and “supporters” with which he is familiar, and the curious designs now to be seen upon the sign-boards of many of our roadside inns, and which were formerly displayed by most other houses of business.
On first noticing this relationship when commencing the study of Heraldry, somewhere about the year 1879, it occurred to me that the subject was well worth following up. It seemed to me that much interesting information would probably be brought to light by a careful examination of the numerous signs of my native county of Essex. Still more desirable did this appear when, after careful inquiry, I found that (so far as I was able to discover) no more than three systematic treatises upon the subject had ever been published. First and foremost among these stands Messrs. Larwood and Hotten’s History of Sign-boards,[1] a standard work which is evidently the result of a very large amount of labour and research. I do not wish to conceal the extent to which I am indebted to it. It is, however, to be regretted that the authors should have paid so much attention to London signs, to the partial neglect of those in other parts of the country, and that they should not have provided a more complete index; but it is significant of the completeness of their work that the other two writers upon the subject have been able to add very little that is new, beside mere local details. A second dissertation upon the origin and use of trade-signs is to be found in a most interesting series of articles upon the signs of the Town of Derby, contributed to the Reliquary[2] in 1867 by the late Mr. Llewellyn Jewitt, F.S.A., the editor of that magazine; while the third and last source of information is to be found in a lengthy pamphlet by Mr. Wm. Pengelly, F.R.S., treating in detail of the Devonshire signs.[3]
On the Continent the literature of signs is much more voluminous. Among the chief works may be mentioned Mons. J. D. Blavignac’s Histoire des Enseignes d’Hôtelleries, d’Auberges, et de Cabarets;[4] Mons. Edouard Fournier’s Histoire des Enseignes de Paris;[5] and Mons. Eustache de La Quérière’s Recherches Historiques sur les Enseignes des Maisons Particulières.[6]
It should be pointed out here that, although in what follows a good deal has been said as to the age and past history of many of the best-known Essex inns, this is, strictly speaking, a treatise on Signs and Sign-boards only. The two subjects are, however, so closely connected that I have found it best to treat them as one.
There will, doubtless, be many who will say that much of what I have hereafter advanced is of too speculative a nature to be of real value. They will declare, too, that I have shown far too great a readiness to ascribe to an heraldic origin, signs which are at least as likely to have been derived from some other source. To these objections I may fairly reply that as, in most cases, no means now exist of discovering the precise mode of origination, centuries ago, of many of our modern signs, it is impossible to do much more than speculate as to their derivation; and the fact that it has been found possible to ascribe such large numbers to a probable heraldic origin affords, to my thinking, all the excuse that is needed for so many attempts having been made to show that others have been derived from the same source.
No one is more fully aware than I am of the incompleteness of my work. Many very interesting facts relating to Essex inns and their signs have unquestionably been omitted. But the search after all such facts is practically an endless one. If, for instance, I had been able to state the history of all the inns and their signs in every town and village in the county with the completeness with which (thanks to Mr. H. W. King) I have been enabled to treat those of Leigh, I should have swelled my book to encyclopædic dimensions, and should have had to ask for it a prohibitory price.
In a treatise involving such an immense amount of minute detail, it is impossible to avoid some errors. My hope is, however, that these are not many. I shall always be glad to have pointed out to me any oversights which may be detected, and I shall be not less glad at all times to receive any additional facts which my readers may be kind enough to send me.