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            [Illustration: CHELMSFORD HIGH STREET IN 1762.

  (_Reduced by Photography from the Larger Engraving by J. Ryland._)]




                                  THE

                         TRADE SIGNS OF ESSEX:

                           A Popular Account

                                  OF

                        THE ORIGIN AND MEANINGS

                                OF THE

                      Public House & Other Signs

                            NOW OR FORMERLY

                     Found in the County of Essex.

                                  BY
                            MILLER CHRISTY,

                   _Author of “Manitoba Described,”
           “The Genus Primula in Essex,” “Our Empire,” &c._

                          WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

                              Chelmsford:
         EDMUND DURRANT & CO., 90, HIGH STREET.

                                London:
          GRIFFITH, FARRAN, OKEDEN, AND WELSH,
                  WEST CORNER ST. PAUL’S CHURCHYARD.

                             MDCCCLXXXVII.

[Illustration]




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.”


A 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.

I regret that it has been necessary to make use of some old heraldic
terms which the general reader will probably not at first understand.
This, however, was quite unavoidable. The meaning of these terms will be
at once made clear on reference to the Glossary given at the end of the
work, as an Appendix.

According to the list given in the last edition of the _Essex Post
Office Directory_ there are now existing in the county no less than one
thousand, three hundred and fifty-five inns and public-houses. The signs
of all these have been classified, arranged under various headings, and
treated of in turn, together with a very large number of others which
have existed in the county during the last two centuries and a half, but
have now disappeared. Information as to these has been collected by
means of a careful examination of the trade-tokens of the seventeenth
century, old Essex Directories, early books and pamphlets relating to
the county, old deeds and records, the early issues of the _Chelmsford
Chronicle_ (now the _Essex County Chronicle_), and other newspapers,
&c., &c. Altogether it will be found I have been able to enumerate no
less than 693 distinct signs as now or formerly occurring in Essex.

I am indebted to a large number of gentlemen who have most kindly
assisted me by supplying me with information, suggestions, &c., during
the eight years I have been gathering material for the present book.
First and foremost among these I must mention Mr. H. W. King of Leigh,
Hon. Secretary to the Essex Archæological Society, who, as he says,
“knows the descent of nearly every house and plot of ground in the
parish for two or three generations, and the name of every owner.” Among
other gentlemen to whom I am indebted in varying degrees, I may mention
Mr. G. F. Beaumont, Mr. Fred. Chancellor, that veteran Essex
archæologist Mr. Joseph Clarke, F.S.A., Mr. Wm. Cole, F.E.S., Hon.
Secretary of the Essex Field Club, Mr. Thos. B. Daniell, the Rev. H. L.
Elliot, Mr. C. K. Probert, Mr. G. N. Maynard, Mr. H. Ecroyd Smith, and
others, I have also to express my thanks to the following gentlemen,
magistrates’ clerks to the various Petty Sessional Divisions of Essex,
who have most kindly supplied me with lists of such beer-houses as have
signs in their respective divisions:--Messrs. A. J. Arthy (Rochford),
Jos. Beaumont (Dengie), W. Bindon Blood (Witham), J. and J. T. Collin
(Saffron Walden), G. Creed (Epping and Harlow), Augustus Cunnington
(Freshwell and South Hinckford), W. W. Duffield (Chelmsford), H. S.
Haynes (Havering), A. H. Hunt (Orsett), and Chas. Smith (Ongar). I have
also to thank the Essex Archæological Society for the use of the four
blocks of the De Vere badges appearing on p. 70; the Essex Field Club
for that of the Rose Inn, Peldon, on p. 118; Messrs. Chambers & Sons of
22, Wilson Street, Finsbury, for that of the Brewers’ Arms on p. 32;
Messrs. Couchman & Co. of 14, Throgmorton Street, E.C., for that of the
Drapers’ Arms on p. 40; and the Brewers’, Drapers’ and Butchers’
Companies for kindly allowing me to insert cuts of their arms. To my
cousin, Miss S. Christy, I am indebted for kindly drawing the
illustrations appearing on pp. 87 and 140.

Portions of the Introduction and other parts of the book have already
appeared in an altered form in _Chambers’s Journal_ (Jan., 1887, p.
785), and I am indebted to the editor for permission to reprint.

Finally, I have to thank the Subscribers, who, by kindly ordering
copies, have diminished the loss which almost invariably attends the
publication of works of this nature. As the book has already extended to
considerably more space than was originally intended, I trust the
Subscribers will excuse the omission of the customary list.

[Illustration: signature of _Miller Christy_]


CHELMSFORD,

_February 1, 1887_.

[Illustration]




[Illustration] CONTENTS.


CHAPTER I.      PAGE

INTRODUCTION      1


CHAPTER II.

HERALDIC SIGNS      29


CHAPTER III.

MAMMALIAN SIGNS      46


CHAPTER IV.

ORNITHOLOGICAL SIGNS      91


CHAPTER V.

PISCATORY, INSECT, AND REPTILIAN SIGNS      103


CHAPTER VI.

BOTANICAL SIGNS      107


CHAPTER VII.

HUMAN SIGNS      120


CHAPTER VIII.

NAUTICAL SIGNS      134


CHAPTER IX.

ASTRONOMICAL SIGNS      148


CHAPTER X.

MISCELLANEOUS SIGNS      153


GLOSSARY OF HERALDIC TERMS USED      176

INDEX TO NAMES OF SIGNS, &C.       177




[Illustration] The Trade Signs of Essex.




CHAPTER I.

_INTRODUCTION._

    “The county god,...
    Whose blazing wyvern weather-cocked the spire,
    Stood from his walls, and winged his entry-gates,
    And swang besides on many a windy sign.”
               TENNYSON: _Aylmer’s Field_.


The use of signs as a means of distinguishing different houses of
business, is a custom which has come down to us from times of great
antiquity. Nevertheless, it is not at all difficult to discover the
reasons which first led to their being employed. In days when only an
infinitesimally small proportion of the population could read, it would
obviously have been absurd for a tradesman to have inscribed above his
door his name and occupation, or the number of his house, as is now
done. Such inscriptions as “Sutton & Sons, Seedsmen,” or “Pears & Co.,
Soapmakers,” would then have been quite useless as a means of
distinguishing the particular houses that bore them; but, if each dealer
displayed conspicuously before his place of business a painted
representation of the wares he sold, the arms of the Trade-Guild to
which he belonged, or those of his landlord or patron, or some other
device by which his house might be known, there would be little
probability of mistake. If the sign thus displayed indicated the nature
of the wares sold within, it would answer a double purpose. Signs, too,
would be especially useful in distinguishing different establishments
in times when many members of the same craft resided, as they used
formerly to do, in one street or district. Although this habit has now
largely disappeared in England, in the cities of the East each trade is
still chiefly confined to its own special quarter.

In considering the subject of how signs originally came into use, it
must never be forgotten that, in bygone times, they were not confined,
as now, almost exclusively to “public-houses.” We have still, among
others, the sign of the POLE for a barber, the ROD AND FISH for a
tackle-dealer, the BLACK BOY for a tobacconist, the GOLDEN BALLS for a
pawnbroker; but formerly the proprietor of nearly every house of
business, and even of private residences, displayed his own particular
sign, just as the keepers of inns and taverns do now. For instance, an
examination of the title-page of almost any book, published a couple of
centuries or so ago, will show an imprint something like the
following:--“Printed for Timothy Childe at the WHITE HART in St. Paul’s
Churchyard; and for Thos. Varnam and John Osborn at the OXFORD ARMS in
Lombard St. MDCCXII.” Again, Sir Richard Baker’s quaint _Chronicles of
the Kings of England_ was printed in 1684, “for H. Sawbridge at the
BIBLE on Ludgate Hill, B. Tooke at the SHIP in St. Paul’s Churchyard,
and T. Sawbridge at the THREE FLOWER-DE-LUCES in Little Brittain.” As a
further example of the use of signs in former times by booksellers, in
common with other tradesmen, it may be mentioned that, according to a
writer in _Frazer’s Magazine_ (1845, vol. xxxii. p. 676)--

     “The first edition of Shakespeare’s _Venus and Adonis_, and the
     first edition of his _Rape of Lucrece_, were ‘sold by John Harrison
     at the sign of the WHITE GREYHOUND in Saint Paul’s Churchyard;’ and
     the first edition of _Shepheard’s Kalender_ by ‘Hugh Singleton,
     dwelling at the GOLDEN TUN, in Creed Lane, near unto Ludgate.’ The
     first edition of _The Merry Wives of Windsor_ was sold at the
     FLOWER DE LEUSE AND CROWNE in St. Paul’s Churchyard; the first
     edition of the _Midsummer Night’s Dream_ at the WHITE HART in Fleet
     Street; the first edition of the _Merchant of Venice_ at the GREEN
     DRAGON in St. Paul’s Churchyard; the first edition of _Richard
     III._ at the ANGEL, and the first edition of _Richard II._ at the
     FOX, both in St. Paul’s Churchyard; the first edition of _Henry V._
     was sold at the CAT AND PARROTS in Cornhill; the first edition of
     _Lear_ at the PIED BULL in St. Paul’s Churchyard; and the first
     edition of _Othello_ ‘at the EAGLE AND CHILD in Britain’s
     Bourse’--_i.e._, the New Exchange.”

Were announcements similar to these to appear on any modern book, it
would certainly give many persons the impression that the work had been
printed at a “public-house.” Again, on the cheques, and over the door of
Messrs. Hoare, bankers, of Fleet Street, may still be seen a
representation of the LEATHER BOTTLE which formed their sign in
Cheapside at least as long ago as the year 1677. In Paris, to the
present day, sellers of “_bois et charbons_” (wood and charcoal or
coals) invariably have the fronts of their establishments, facing the
street, painted in a manner intended to convey the impression that the
house is built of rough logs of wood. This device, although not
displayed upon a sign-board, forms, in every respect, a true trade-sign.
In all parts of France, signs still retain much more of their ancient
glory than they do in England. Though not common in the newer and more
fashionable streets and boulevards, they are abundant in the older
quarters of Paris, Rouen, and other large towns. They are much oftener
pictorial or graven than with us, and it is notable that they are used
almost, or quite, as frequently by shopkeepers and other tradesmen as by
the keepers of wine-shops, inns, and taverns. The sign, too, very often
represents the wares sold within.

Nowadays, however, the old custom of displaying a sign finds favour with
very few English tradesmen, except the keepers of inns and taverns; and
even they have allowed the custom to sink to such depths of degradation
that the great majority of sign-boards now bear only the name of the
house in print: consequently the reason which led originally to the use
of signs--the necessity for pictorial representation when few could
read--is no longer obvious. It may be truly said that the great spread
of education among all classes during the present century has given a
death-blow alike to the use of signs in trade and to the art of the
sign-painter. This, to be sure, is hardly a matter to call for regret on
its own account. Nevertheless, the great decline in the use of the
old-fashioned pictorial sign-board is to be regretted for many reasons.
The signs which our forefathers made use of have interwoven themselves
with our whole domestic, and even, to some extent, with our political,
history. In losing them we are losing one of the well-known landmarks of
the past. Sign-boards of the real old sort have about them an amount of
interest which is sufficient to surprise those who care to take trouble
in studying them. Dr. Brewer very truly says, in his _Dictionary of
Phrase and Fable_:--“Much of a nation’s history, and more of its manners
and feelings, may be gleaned from its public-house signs.” The
sign-boards themselves tell us (as has already been pointed out) of the
habit our forefathers had of crowding together in one street or district
all those who were of a like occupation or profession. They tell us also
of the deep ignorance of the masses of the people in days when
sign-boards were a necessity. And when it is remembered that it was only
so lately as the beginning of the present century that the knowledge of
reading and writing became sufficiently widespread to allow the
numbering of houses to come into general use as a means of
distinguishing one house from another, it will be easily seen that the
sign-boards of (say) two centuries ago played a very important, and even
an essential, part in the commercial world of those days.

But a study of the various devices that appear even on modern
sign-boards will teach us still more of the doings of our ancestors.
They tell us of the wares our forefathers made and dealt in, of the
superstitious beliefs they held, of the party strifes in which they
engaged, and of the great titled families which had so large a share in
the making of English history--in short, the devices seen, even on
modern sign-boards, afford, to those who can and care to read them, no
mean picture both of mediæval and more modern times. It was well
remarked in an early number of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ (1738, vol.
viii. p. 526), that “The People of England are a nation of Politicians,
from the First Minister down to the cobbler, and peculiarly remarkable
for hanging out their principles upon their sign-posts.” Some of our
modern Essex signs, for instance, are relics (as will be more clearly
pointed out hereafter) of what were once staple industries in the
county, though now all but unknown in it. Thus the signs of the WOOLPACK
(p. 79), the SHEARS (p. 41), and the GOLDEN FLEECE (p. 78) are all
mementoes of the time when the woollen trade flourished in Essex. The
sign of the HOP-POLES (p. 111) reminds us of the time when hop-growing
formed a considerable industry in the county. Our various BLUE BOARS (p.
68) speak to us of the noble and once mighty Essex family of De Vere,
which formerly wielded a great power in England. These are but a few
instances. Others will occur to every one who peruses the following
pages. At the present day, too, there is scarcely a village in the
county that has not some street, square, or lane named after an
inn-sign, as, for instance, Sun Street, Eagle Lane, Swan Street, Falcon
Square, Lion Walk, Greyhound Lane, &c. In London, or Paris, the
connection is still closer. Surely, then, although signs are no longer
of great or urgent importance to us in the daily routine of our ordinary
business life, an inquiry into their past history will be a matter of
much interest, especially as comparatively little has hitherto been
written about them.

Nevertheless, although it is certain that (as has been stated) not a few
of our present signs have been derived from emblems of industries now
decayed and the armorial bearings of ancient county families, the fact
cannot be overlooked that in a great many cases these particular signs,
as now displayed by particular houses, have only very recently come into
use. That is to say, they are only _indirectly_ derived from the sources
named, having been selected because, perhaps, some neighbouring and
really ancient inn (which derived its sign _directly_) was known to have
long borne that sign. There can be no doubt (as Mr. H. W. King writes)
that--

     “The very large majority of country inns are comparatively modern,
     both as to signs and sites. Elsewhere, as here [Leigh], I suspect
     they have been moved and removed again and again--old signs
     shifted, and often changed altogether. I remember the late Mr.
     Edward Woodard, of Billericay, telling me some years ago that the
     inns of that town had been changed again and again: that is, what
     are now private residences were formerly inns, and _vice versa_.
     This he knew from the evidence of conveyances which had passed
     through his hands professionally. I have no doubt that every town
     would show the same facts if only one could get sufficient
     evidence. At the same time, of course, some inns are very old
     indeed, both as to sites and signs.”

The great decay in the use of inn-signs of the real old sort has, it is
much to be feared, now gone too far to be arrested, however much it may
be regretted. In Essex, probably not five per cent. of our sign-boards
are now pictorial. Even in the remote and sleepy little town of Thaxted
very few of the inns now possess pictorial signs. Here and there,
however, throughout the county one may still come across a few such, and
several excellent examples will be hereafter alluded to.

Probably no better idea can now be obtained in Essex of an old-fashioned
thoroughfare than in the broad High Street at Epping. From one point no
less than ten sign-boards may be seen, all swinging over the pavement in
the ancient style. Only one, however, the WHITE LION, is now pictorial.
The number of inns in Grays, too, is very large. It has been stated in
print that “for its size, it contains more than any other town in
England.” In the narrow Tindal Street at Chelmsford the sign-boards
still swing across the street in the old style, and are hung upon the
old supports. The best example is that which supports the sign of the
SPOTTED DOG. Witham has many inns, nearly all of which have their
sign-boards hanging over the pavement, but neither they nor their
supports are of much interest. Colchester has hardly such a thing as a
projecting sign-board, let alone pictorial signs. Castle Hedingham, for
its size, probably has more pictorial signs than any other Essex town,
the BELL, the CROWN, the THREE CROWNS, and the RISING SUN being all thus
represented. Except the sign-iron of the _Six Bells_ (p. 168), Dunmow
contains but little of sign-board interest. The only pictorial
sign-board in Ongar is that of the COCK. Several signs and sign-irons in
Bardfield are hereafter noticed (pp. 170 and 169). In the High Street at
Romford are many very old inns, but their signs are all script. At Leigh
there are many inns, the most ancient of which, in the opinion of Mr.
H. W. King, are the CROWN and the HAMBORO’ MERCHANTS’ ARMS, though the
GEORGE was originally the more important.

The following interesting list of inns in the Epping Division in
September, 1789, has been kindly contributed by Mr. G. Creed of
Epping:--

     CHINGFORD: King’s Head, Bull. EPPING: White Lion, Bell, Cock, Swan,
     Black Lion, Epping Place, Cock and Magpie, Green Man, Globe,
     George, Rose and Crown, Thatched House, White Hart, Harp, White
     Horse, Sun, Chequers. NAZING: Chequer, Sun, Coach and Horses,
     Crown, King Harold’s Head. ROYDON: Fish and Eels, Black Swan, New
     Inn, White Hart, Green Man. WALTHAM ABBEY: Owl, Green Man, Harp,
     Greyhound, Ship, Cock, Chequer, Angel, Rose and Crown, Red Lion,
     Bull’s Head, Three Tons (_sic_), Sun, Cock, New Inn, Green Dragon,
     White Horse, Compasses, White Lion, King’s Arms. CHIGWELL: Three
     Jolly Wheelers, Roebuck, King’s Head, Maypole, Bald Hind, Fox and
     Hounds, Bald Stag. LOUGHTON: Reindeer, Crown, King’s Head, Plume of
     Feathers. MORETON: Nag’s Head, Green Man, White Hart. NORTH WEALD:
     Rainbow, King’s Head. STANFORD RIVERS: White Bear, Green Man.
     THEYDON BOIS: White Hart. THEYDON GARNON: Merry Fiddlers. GREAT
     HALLINGBURY: George. LATTON: Sun and Whalebone, Bush Fair House.
     FYFIELD: Black Bull, Queen’s Head. LAMBOURNE: White Hart, Blue
     Boar. HIGH LAVER: Chequer. LITTLE LAVER: Leather Bottle. MAGDALEN
     LAVER: Green Man. CHIPPING ONGAR: White Horse, King’s Head, Anchor,
     Crown, Red Lion, Bull, Cock. HIGH ONGAR: Red Lion, White Horse, Two
     Brewers. HARLOW: King’s Head, Black Bull, George, Green Man, White
     Horse, Horns and Horseshoes, Queen’s Head, Black Lion, Marquis of
     Granby. HATFIELD BROAD OAK: Plume of Feathers, White Horse, Cock,
     Duke’s Head, Bald-Faced Stag, Red Lion, Crown. SHEERING: Crown,
     Cock. NETTESWELL: White Horse, Chequer. GREAT PARNDON: Cock, Three
     Horse Shoes.

In the last edition of the _London Directory_, 82 firms are still
described as “sign-painters,” and in the _Essex Directory_, 10; but it
is certain that most of these follow also some other trade than
sign-painting. In some cases artists of eminence have been known to
paint signs for inns, but there does not appear to have been any notable
instances of this in Essex. As a rule our pictorial sign-boards are not
works of art. That this is a common failing elsewhere, is shown by the
fact that the French say of a bad portrait or picture, “qu’il n’est bon
qu’à faire une enseigne à bière.” Signs, it must be admitted, are among
those things which the enlightenment of this go-ahead nineteenth century
is rapidly improving off the face of the earth. Yet one cannot but
agree with the writer in _Frazer’s Magazine_, already quoted, who aptly
observes that it is a thousand pities the old signs were ever taken
down. “Men might,” he says, “read something of history (to say nothing
of a hash of heraldry) in their different devices.”

This decay in the use of inn-signs, however, is no greater than the
decline in importance of the inns themselves. These have within quite
recent years fallen from a position of great eminence and prosperity to
one of comparative degradation. Up to about fifty years ago, inns were
the centres round which most events of the time revolved. They combined
within themselves, to a very large extent, the various uses to which
modern clubs, reading-rooms, institutes, railway stations, restaurants,
eating-houses, hotels, public-houses, livery-stables, and the like are
now severally put. At present the majority of our inns are little more
than tippling-houses or drinking-places for the poorer classes. The
upper stratum of society has but little connection with them, beyond
receiving their rents.

Nothing has done more to promote this lowering of the status of modern
inns in general than the disuse of coaching. Inns were the
starting-points and destinations of the old coaches, and travellers
naturally put up and took their meals at them. Now people travel by
rail, stop at railway stations, put up at the “Railway Hotel,” and get
their meals in the station “refreshment rooms.” In days, too, when
country inns formed the stopping-places of the coaches they naturally
became important centres of information. In this they answered the
purpose to which clubs, institutes, reading-rooms, and the like are now
put. The cheap newspapers of to-day have given another serious shock to
the old tavern life of last century. Then, too, the innumerable horses,
needed for the many coaches on the great high-roads of fifty or a
hundred years ago, were kept at the inns, to the great advantage of the
latter. Now the various railway companies, of course, provide their own
engines, and the old-fashioned inns have to content themselves with a
very limited posting or omnibus business.

It is, indeed, not too much to say that in the old coaching days a small
town or village on any main road often consisted largely or almost
entirely of inns, and lived upon the traffic. Supplying the necessaries
for this traffic may be said to have been “the local industry” by which
the inhabitants of such places lived. Evidences of this may be gained
from not a few old books. Thus in Ogilby’s _Traveller’s Guide_, a book
of the roads published in 1699, Bow, near Stratford, is said to be “full
of inns,” while Stratford and Kelvedon are both spoken of as “consisting
chiefly of inns.” Again, in Daniel Defoe’s _Tour through the whole
Island of Great Britain_, published in 1724 (vol. i. p. 52), it is said
that--

     “Brent-Wood and Ingarstone, and even Chelmsford itself, have very
     little to be said of them, but that they are large thorough-fair
     Towns, full of good Inns, and chiefly maintained by the excessive
     Multitude of Carriers and Passengers, which are constantly passing
     this Way, with Droves of Cattle, Provisions, and Manufactures for
     London.”

Few persons of the present day have any adequate idea of the extent to
which tavern life influenced thought and manners seventy, eighty, or one
hundred years ago. Each man then had his tavern, much as we now have our
clubs and reading-rooms. There he met his friends every evening,
discussed the political questions of the day, talked over business
topics, and heard the