“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 (don’t say ’tis absurd)
Stands the majestic kingly Bird,
And both are named and known together,
As birds are known that’s of one feather.”
The rest of the poem, which is long, does not merit reproduction. This house is marked on Jean Roque’s Map of Ten Miles round London, published in 1741. The Falcon occurs three times, namely, at Southend, Littlebury, and Wivenhoe. Twenty years ago one of these figured in the list as the New Falcon, and sixty years since there was another in the High Street at *Braintree. A farthing token showing a bird holding a sceptre, and issued by “John Parker at the Falken in Wevenhoe,” is described by Boyne. Taylor (see p. 28) also mentions this Parker in 1636. As the sign of the Falcon still exists at Wivenhoe it is probably the same house kept more than two centuries ago by John Parker, especially as the same house is mentioned again in an advertisement in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 13, 1786. At the end of last century there was an inn with the sign of the Falcon close against the Cross at Waltham. Two illustrations of it, published respectively in 1787 and 1791, are preserved in Mr. Creed’s collection. They show the sign-board (a pictorial one, inscribed with the name of the landlord—Sibley) suspended from a beam which extends across the road. Above this beam is hung a bunch of grapes within an iron frame, as here shown. The sign has now been altered to that of the Great Eastern.
The Old Falcon Inn, which formerly existed at Castle Hedingham, though now reduced to a mere beer-shop, was once evidently a very good house. Its beams and rafters are very massive, and bear the crest and badge of the Earls of Oxford, like not a few other old houses in the vicinity. The sign is probably identical with that of the Hawk, which occurs at Battles Bridge. Its origin may have been the ancient sport of hawking; but, more probably, it has an heraldic derivation. A falcon volant forms part of the arms of the Stationers’ Company, and it was probably adopted by booksellers on this account. Both Edward III. and Richard II. used a falcon as one of their badges, and the Falcon holding a Sceptre, which, as just mentioned, existed at Wivenhoe in the seventeenth century, was presumably derived from one of the badges of Queen Elizabeth, a falcon crowned, holding a sceptre. It is, however, by no means improbable that the particular instance of the sign of the Falcon in Falcon Square, Castle Hedingham (which happens to be triangular!), may be a relic of the ancient family of the Hawkwoods, who resided in the adjoining parish of Sible Hedingham. Sir John Hawkwood, the famous soldier who became so prominent in the Italian wars of the fourteenth century, was buried in Florence, but upon the beautiful crocketted canopy of the monument erected to him in the south aisle of Sible Hedingham Church, his badge (?), a Hawk or Falcon, is carved several times, with other devices.
The Swan, including several variations in colour, &c., is a very common Essex sign, and appears in thirty-eight different places; while, forty or fifty years ago, it seems to have been even commoner. Thirty-two times he occurs as a simple Swan; at Harwich he appears as a New Swan; at Rayne and Roydon (where he is at least one hundred years old) as a Black Swan; at Chelmsford as an Old Swan; and at Epping and West Ham as a White Swan. The Swan now existing at Brentwood is, apparently, at least a century old, as it is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle on March 24, 1786. The fondness of the bird for liquid (though of a purer kind than that usually supplied at public-houses) is said to have been the reason for its very common adoption as a public-house sign; but the custom is equally likely to have had an heraldic origin. Kings Henry IV. and V. both used a swan among other badges, and the same device formed part of the coat of arms of the De Bohun and other families. The annexed wood-cut of the swan proper, ducally gorged and chained or, which formed the badge of the De Bohuns, is taken from the central spandrel of the canopy of the brass in Westminster Abbey to Alianore De Bohun, Duchess of Gloucester, who died in 1399. It is also very probable that the white swan which formed the badge of the great De Mandevilles, once Earls of Essex, has had something to do with the abundance of this sign in the county. In Tavern Anecdotes (p. 241) it is stated that in 1825 the landlord of the *Swan at Stratford recommended the charms of his house in the following poetic strain:—
“At the Swan Tavern kept by Lound
The best accommodation’s found,—
Wine, Spirits, Porter, Bottled Beer,
You’ll find in high perfection here.
If in the garden with your lass
You feel inclined to take a glass,
There Tea and Coffee of the best
Provided is, for every guest.
And, females not to drive from hence,
The charge is only fifteen pence.
Or, if disposed a Pipe to smoke,
To sing a song or crack a joke,
You may repair across the Green,
Where nought is heard, though much is seen;
There laugh and drink, and smoke away,
And but a moderate reckoning pay,
Which is a most important object
To every loyal British subject.
In short, the best accommodation’s found
By those who deign to visit Lound.”
In Mr. Chas. Golding’s List of Essex Tokens,[71] pieces inscribed “Abel Bond at ye White [Swan] in Stratford, His Halfe Penny,” and “John Chandler old. In the parish register is the following entry: “Martha Blewitt, ye wife of nine husbands successively, buried eight of y^m, but last of all ye woman dy’d allsoe, was bury’d May 7th, 1681.” A slab in the Church shows that Martha Blewitt was landlady of the above inn.
In Cromwell’s Excursions through Essex (i. p. 17) it is stated that “The Swan, a very large and famous inn, anciently stood in the road near the farm called Shakestones.” The view of Romford given in Wright’s History of Essex (1831, ii. p. 435) shows the graven sign of the White Swan Inn, projecting from the front of the building exactly as it does now. It appears from an old Manor Roll[72] that in 1572 there was a “tenement called the Swan”—not necessarily an inn—in Coggeshall. The sign still exists there—namely, in East Street—though possibly not at the same house. It is, however, again mentioned in 1678 in Bufton’s Diary.[73] Mr. King finds mention in ancient deeds of a Swan—either inn, shop, or tenement—at Prittlewell in 1652. In the Records of the House of Gurney (p. 539) there is mention of “a messuage or tenement heretofore called or known by the name or sign of the Swan, situate in the parish of St. Mary, Maldon,” in the seventeenth century. Perhaps the *Swan Inn still existing in the High Street is the same house. In 1678 there was a Black Swan at or near Audley End. Poor Robin (see p. 66) mentions it in his Perambulation from Saffron Walden to London. After his acquaintances had drunk heavily with him at the Rose and Crown, Saffron Walden, whence he started, he says—
“Yet would my jovial friends on me attend,
Part of my Journey unto Audley End,
By them called Ninevah, but no great city,
Though too much sin may be there, more’s the pity.
There at the sign (of such a thing, I think,
As never swam on pond or river’s brink)
Of a Black Swan, I entered in.
. . . . . . . . . .
Yet although of this sign there’s no such thing,
It was a sign there was good drink within.”