In the early days when serfdom had not long ceased and the retainers of the nobles had not won their full freedom or independence, signs and symbols of their allegiance to some chief or overlord were plentiful. The Crusaders brought back with them signs, amulets, and various objects which they wore with more or less superstitious belief. The pilgrims to the most noted shrines in this country followed suit, and all these various purposes and mediæval customs have furnished the curio-hunter with many delightful reminders of the "good old days" when superstition and almost idolatry were rife. Old Father Thames has preserved many of them for centuries, and twentieth-century collectors are richer thereby. In the Guildhall Museum in London there is a very complete and representative collection of pilgrims' signs. Although many of them are made of a soft metal, there are others of good copper and brass. At one time they must have been very plentiful, for very prolific have the finds been in the neighbourhood of London Bridge and in and around Southwark. These signs or badges were secured and worn by the pilgrims who set out to the chief shrines, notably that of St. Thomas à Becket at Canterbury. Chaucer in his _Canterbury Tales_ has told that there were many traders in pilgrim signs in Canterbury city, so that all were enabled to possess themselves of such symbols, many of which they threw upon the shrine, and others retained them as talismans against danger on the return journey. The pilgrims wore a variety of emblems--the more devout, it is said, preferred the cross; others carried with them on their journey little metal figures of St. George, St. Katherine, St. Christopher, or other saint with his or her symbol. St. Agnes was represented by a lamb, St. John by an eagle, and St. Dorothy by a basket of fruit. Perhaps the most favoured sign purchased in Canterbury was an equestrian figure of St. Thomas à Becket. Some of the emblems were worn as protectors against evil, and such signs were almost invariably on horse trappings; indeed, such amulets have been perpetuated almost up to the present day. There are several circular discs in the museum referred to, said to date from the twelfth century, upon these are embossed two horned animals; another badge of a little later date, in copper, has upon it a shield of arms surrounded by three mythical dragons; it was found in Ludgate Hill. Yet another on which is a shield charged with seven stars, said to be of fourteenth-century workmanship, was found some time ago on the site of the old General Post Office in St Martin's-le-Grand.