That day we had good cheer,
I hope to so do many a year.—David Jersey.”
The George and Dragon also occurs eight times elsewhere in the county, as well as on several beer-house signs. At Chelmsford there is an Old George (beer-house). Mr. H. W. King also finds mention in early deeds of a house known as the George and Tankard at Shopland in 1579. It is not stated that it was an inn, but from the sign there can be very little doubt that it was. The appearance of an apparently impaled sign at so early a date is certainly very remarkable. Larwood and Hotten do not notice this device.
Various military signs occur at places where there are barracks. For instance, there are at Colchester houses with such signs as the Bugle Horn, the Artillery-man, the Rifleman, the Dragoon, the *Fencers (a sign which is at least forty years old, though it is not mentioned by Larwood
and Hotten), an Ordnance Arms, and a Royal Artillery; whilst at Great Warley there is a Horse Artillery and a Soldier’s Hotel, which seems to have been the Soldier’s Hope forty years ago. At Waltham Abbey there is a Volunteer; there are Riflemen at Colchester and Black Notley (beer-house); at Kelvedon Hatch there is a Guardsman, at Rettendon a Life Guards, and at Leyton a Grenadier. The figure of a Grenadier, here reproduced, is taken from the Gentleman’s Magazine for December, 1845 (p. 591), to which it was contributed by the late Mr. J. A. Repton, F.S.A., formerly of Springfield. A Soldier is represented on three different farthing tokens issued by John Allen of Braintree, one of which bears the date 1657. All bear his initials, but one has the inscription, “Turne a penny,” in the place of the name of the issuer. On these tokens the orthography is decidedly peculiar. Thus, Braintree is twice spelled “Brantre” and once “Brantry,” while Essex is twice spelled “Esex” and once “Esaxes.”
Among the more miscellaneous of Human Signs we meet with a Crown’s Inn at Ongar, a Forester at Coggeshall, a Forester’s Inn at Plaistow, an Ancient Foresters at Hatfield Broad Oak (all, of course, connected with the “ancient order”), three Freemasons’ Taverns, several Freemasons’ Arms, a Merry Fiddlers at Theydon Garnon, eight examples of the Cricketers (against five in 1862), two of the Cricketers’ Arms, a Jolly Cricketers, a Jolly Fisherman, a Jolly Sailor, a Sailor’s Return, two Welcome Sailors, an Old Welcome Sailor, a Three Travellers (perhaps representing the three wise men from the East), and a Minerva at Southend, which, as Mr. H. W. King has ascertained, was recently christened by its owner after a barge of the same name that he possessed. At Chigwell there has been for at least a century past a house with the sign of the Three Jolly Wheelers (whatever they might be). There are Travellers’ Friends at Moulsham and Woodford Wells (the former being at least forty years old), as well as a beer-house of the same name at Epping; Travellers’ Rests at Forest Gate and Wethersfield (the latter being a beer-house); Britannias at Canning Town, Barking, Southend, and Hornchurch (beer-house); and Two Brewers at *Stratford, Springfield, High Ongar, and Chigwell (beer-house). This is a sign once common, but now becoming rare. They were usually represented carrying a barrel of beer between them, slung on a pole. There are Woodmen at Halstead, Elmdon, Waltham Abbey, Stanford Rivers, Thundersley, Romford, &c., all but the first two being beer-houses. The Three Mariners is an odd sign which occurs at Colchester and at Moulsham (Chelmsford). At the latter place it seems to have existed for at least a century, being referred to in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 27, 1786. In the garden of the Adam and Eve at West Ham (p. 37) stands the remains of an old stone arch, now almost the only remaining portion of the ancient abbey of Stratford Langthorn. In the kitchen are (or were lately) a coffin, a seal, some coins, and some urns dug up in an adjoining field towards the end of last century. The Essex Head, in Essex Street, Strand, London, W.C., probably commemorates the Earl of Essex, who was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth, rather than the county of that name. It clearly either takes its name from, or gives its name to, the street in which it stands. The inn was established in the last century. On the Forest, near High Beech, is a beer-shop known as the Dick Turpin’s Cave. It clearly takes its name from a hole in the ground not far distant, commonly spoken of as “Dick Turpin’s Cave.” The “cave” (if such it ever was) is now thickly overgrown with trees and brushwood. It is well known that Messrs. Dick Turpin and Co. especially haunted the neighbourhood of Epping and Hainault Forests, and until the end of last century it was not considered safe to traverse the roads thereabouts unless well armed. It may very well be, therefore, that the famous highwayman did, at some time or other, use this hole as a place of refuge.
The Hercules at Newport (the only example in Essex of this rather uncommon sign) has already been mentioned (p. 65), also the tradition that the Bull, which stood opposite to it, was by it compelled to close its doors. With regard to this inn Mr. C. K. Probert of Newport sends an interesting note. He says:
“The Hercules stands next to the old Vicarage. Now we know it was a common custom among village clergymen to take their pipe and pot at the village inn, as mentioned in the old song, which says:
‘At the sign of the Horse,
Old Spintext, of course,
Each night takes his pipe and his pot,
O’er a Jorum of “nappy,”
Contented and happy,
There sits this canonical sot,’ &c., &c.
Further, it is my belief that the Hercules was started in opposition to the Bull, our Pastor (being the most learned individual in the place at the period) probably suggesting the classical name, in reference to the seventh labour of Hercules—the slaying of the Cretan Bull.”