ASTRONOMICAL signs fall naturally into another small class, which will be treated of next. In Essex we have six examples of the sign of the Half Moon, which may represent either crescents taken from some one’s arms or else the emblem of temporal power. The Half Moon at *Chelmsford, a small, though ancient, house, possesses a quaint and truly pictorial sign-board. At 94, Great Suffolk Street, London, S.E., there has been for three-quarters of a century, at least, a house with the most extraordinary sign of the Moonrakers. It is all but impossible to conceive any origin for so strange a device. It is just possible, however, that the sign may have some connection with a tale told of the inhabitants of the town of Coggeshall, about whom so many similar stories are told. One fine night, so says the tale, certain of the natives of that celebrated town observed what they took to be a fine round cheese floating on the surface of a pond. Thereupon, it is further stated, they procured rakes and endeavoured to draw the supposed cheese to land. Nor did they discover, until they had been some time so engaged, that their cheese was merely the reflection of the moon in the water! The Sun is met with twelve times and the Rising Sun nine times. The use of the sun as a sign is very ancient, both in England and on the Continent. A rising sun formed one of the badges of Edward III., and shining suns were used as badges by several other English sovereigns. A sun also

forms a prominent charge in the arms of the Distillers’ Company. The Sun in Splendour, used as a badge by Richard II., is here shown. The engraving is taken from an illuminated manuscript in the Harleian Collection, wherein the badge is painted on the sail of a ship. Larwood and Hotten suggest that the Rising Sun was, perhaps, adopted as a sign “on account of the favourable omen it presents for a man commencing business.” The Sun at *Thaxted seems to have existed since the year 1786 at least, for it is mentioned in the Chelmsford Chronicle for January 20th in that year. The Sun Inn at Romford bears the monogram “T. W. L.” and the date 1632. The Sun Inn in Church Street, Saffron Walden, was once a house of note, but is now a private residence. It was probably built about 1625. The devices, more grotesque than elegant, which adorn its many gables, make it one of the best remaining Essex examples of houses adorned with parge work. In 1646, when it was probably the chief inn in the town, it lodged no less important an individual than Oliver Cromwell. His portrait, painted on the tiles at the side of a fire-place, was found during some recent restorations, and is now in the Museum. It was, doubtless, covered up at the Restoration.[92] Until about forty years ago there stood beside the main road to Colchester, just outside the parish of Kelvedon, an inn known as the Sun. It is still a curious old house, worthy of notice from the passer-by, but up to the date named it, and even the furniture it contained, exhibited all the characteristics of a sixteenth century house. Its carved woodwork, however, was sold and afterwards accidentally burned and its furniture scattered. The pictorial sign-board of the Rising Sun at Castle Hedingham is very grotesque. It is here represented

within the sign-iron of the Bell at the same place (p. 158). The Rising Sun at Salcot is many times mentioned in the Rev. Baring-Gould’s Mehalah. It is therein (ii. p. 4) thus described:—“At the end of the village stands a low tavern, the Rising Sun, a mass of gables. Part of it (the tavern drinking-room) is only one storey high, but the rest is a jumble of roofs and lean-to buildings, chimneys and ovens—a miracle of picturesqueness.” As previously stated (pp. 147 and 83) the sun enters into two very absurd combinations, a Sun and Anchor at Steeple, and a Sun and Whalebone at Latton. Both of these are, in all probability, impaled signs. The Star appears on Essex sign-boards eight times. Its use is probably due to the fact that in mediÆval times

it was the symbol of the Virgin Mary, and that it forms the crest of the Innholders’ Company; but it is very probable that in Essex the sign of the Star often represents the mullet argent which formed one of the chief badges of the De Veres, Earls of Oxford, and also the most prominent charge in the family arms (see p. 70).[93] It was probably first adopted by Robert, the third Earl, who died in 1221. It appears on his seals and on his monument at Hatfield Broad Oak. Thenceforth it was borne by all his descendants. Mr. Elliot, in the interesting article already quoted (p. 70), says that at the Battle of Barnet, in 1471, the defeat of the Lancastrians is attributed to a mistake made by the Earl of Warwick’s men; who, in the morning mist, took the badge of the Earl of Oxford’s men for the Yorkist badge of the Sun in Splendour. They accordingly shot at their friends, who, suspecting treachery, cried “Treason!” and fled from the field. Mr. Elliot adds that “this badge is frequently found on houses and churches in this county and Suffolk.” It is in every way probable that it was often put upon the former as a sign. In Heraldry the star, or Étoile, is represented with six wavy points and not pierced in the centre, as here shown, thus distinguishing it from the mullet, which has five straight points and is usually pierced. The latter is said originally to have represented, not a star, but a spur-rowel. It appears from the parish registers,[94] that there was also a Star at Grays in 1724. At Ilford there is a coffee-shop with the sign of the Morning Star, probably to indicate that it is open early for working men. A beer-house at Witham, however, has the same sign. Mr. King finds in ancient deeds mention of a Star—either inn, shop, or tenement—at Rochford in 1693. There are now beer-shops of the same name at Ingatestone, Woodham Ferris, and elsewhere, while a Northern Star exists at Romford. At Brightlingsea there is a Star of Denmark (whatever that might be), and an Old Star occurs at Good Easter. Twice, also, as elsewhere mentioned (p. 79), we meet with the Star and Fleece, namely, at Kelvedon and Romford; while the Star and Garter, representing the Insignia of the Order of the Garter, occurs at Chelmsford and at Newport. An advertisement in the Chelmsford Chronicle for February 10, 1786, refers to the Star at Writtle, and another in the same journal for March 31st following refers to the Star at Dunmow, at both of which places the sign still exists. The Star at Kelvedon, perhaps identical with the Star and Fleece now existing there, is mentioned in the issue for the 29th of December in the same year. The *Star and Anchor which appeared at Colchester sixty years ago was in all probability an impalement. Mr. E. W. Bingham of Castle Hedingham is in possession of documentary evidence showing that during the latter part of last century the present vicarage at that place was known as the Black Mullet. It may or may not have been an inn at the time. The sign may have been set up originally as a contrast to the silver mullet of the De Veres.