Serpent, the place where it commonly lurks, and what means hath been used to kill it. Also a discourse of other Serpents, and particularly of a Cockatrice killed at Saffron Walden,” &c.[80] The truth of the statements contained in the tract is attested by the Churchwarden, the Constable, the Overseer of the Poor, and four Householders. The title-page bears no author’s name, and the imprint of the copy in question is partially destroyed; but there can be little doubt that it is one of the many curious productions of “Poor Robin,” whose Perambulation from Saffron Walden to London has already been noticed (p. 66).[81] In addition to an awe-inspiring portrait of the beast, here reproduced, the tract contains a very amusing, though now highly absurd, account of the first discovery of the serpent, the nature of its habitat, the means taken to kill it, and other details, as set forth in the title. Doubtless the appearance of the tract caused sufficient talk and attracted enough attention to induce some enterprising publican or other tradesman to set up the Essex Serpent as a sign; or perhaps some former Griffin or Green Dragon was rechristened under that name in order to attract customers. That it is a fairly old sign is certain. Gough, in his British Topography,[82] after alluding to the pamphlet just spoken of, says: “Mr. Oldys [who died in 1761] says there is a public-house in King Street, Covent Garden, called the Essex Serpent, and having a serpent painted on its sign.” Sussex had a “strange and monstrous Serpent (or Dragon)” in 1614, as may be learned from a very curious old pamphlet of that date, entitled True and Wonderful, republished in the Harleian Miscellany.[83] Essex can boast of a reptilian sign which probably exists nowhere else, a beer-house keeper at Ingatestone having, for some inscrutable reason, selected the Viper—a device not noticed by Larwood and Hotten.
CHAPTER VI.
BOTANICAL SIGNS.
HE 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.
Those signs will be noticed first which are obviously derived from some prominent tree or trees growing close to the houses called after them. These seem generally to be of very modern origin, as they figure but sparsely in the list printed forty years ago. Most of them, it will be noticed, are in the vicinity of London. There is a Bay Tree at Stratford, a Chestnut Tree at Walthamstow, an Elms at Leytonstone, a Fir Trees at Wanstead, a Four Ashes at Takeley, a Grove Tavern at Walthamstow, a Holly Bush at Leyton, and another at Loughton, a Holly Tree at Forest Gate, and a May Bush at Great Oakley. The sign of the Willows appears at Willingale Doe. There is also on the list a Three Ashes at Cressing, and another at Chelmsford, while forty years since there was another at Rochford, a Yew Tree at Great Horkesley, and another at Felstead (beer-house), a Three Elms at Chignal St. James (which has three elm trees in front of it), and no less than seven Cherry Trees in different parts of the county, although forty years ago only four were in existence. The Thorn Inn at *Mistley seems to have been in existence since 1786 at least, as it is mentioned in an advertisement in the Chelmsford Chronicle for February 24th in that year. Its sign is, obviously, connected with the old name of the place, which was Mistley Thorn. In the Very Young Lady’s Tour from London to Aldborough and Back (1804, see p. 37) occurs the following:
“Our first stage is to Mistley; we stop at the Thorn,
And shall see the fine sights which that village adorn.”
There is a Round Bush (beer-shop) at Purleigh. At Havering there is an Orange Tree, and in the *Cattle Market at Braintree there is another house with the same name. The latter has been in existence for at least forty years. At Chelmsford, too, near the New London Road, there is a beer-shop known as the Orange Tree. Inquiry has shown that the house was built some years ago by a woman who had saved sufficient money for the purpose out of dealing in oranges. She named her beer-shop the Orange Tree, a name which it has since retained, though it has long since passed out of her hands. There are Walnut Trees at Little Horkesley and Great Waltham (beer-house). In 1662 there was another house of the same name at “Mile-end Green” (probably Mill Green, Writtle, or Mile End Green, Great Easton), as mentioned in the Account of the Murder of Thomas Kidderminster, already referred to (p. 56). There is some doubt as to whether or not the sign of the Oak, which occurs three times, namely, at Halstead, Messing, and Great Saling, and that of the Old Oak, which occurs at Romford, ought to be included in this catalogue. These signs may be, and probably are, identical with that of the Royal Oak, which occurs eighteen times in different parts of the county, and of course commemorates the incident of King Charles II. hiding in an oak tree, though it is certainly strange that this comparatively trivial incident should have continued to be so long and so frequently commemorated. It is also a very common beer-house sign. The Oak, too, is put to the same use at Braintree. The following very unpoetical production, by H. Jopson, the landlord, is displayed in the tap-room of the Royal Oak at Saffron Walden: