The _Swan_ was a favourite emblem with many of our kings, its first mention being in the “Vow of the Swan,” when Edward I swore to take vengeance on Scotland for the murder of Comyn. On the signboards it must generally be ascribed to Henry IV. With Henry V and VI, the antelope is the heraldic emblem; there is an old half-timbered _Antelope_ opposite the Market House at Godalming, but it has recently been re-named the _White Hart_. At Bristol and at Guildford are _White Lion_ inns, probably in honour of Edward IV, whose arms have for supporters the _White Lion_ and the _Black Bull_ of the house of Clarence. Richard III reigned for too short a span to provide us with many _White Boars_, and the few that existed hastened after his death to change their names to that of the _Blue Boar_; a coat of blue paint was a cheap way of converting the _White Boar_ of the fallen monarch into the _Blue Boar_ of the Earl of Oxford, whose influence had contributed very largely to place Henry Tudor on the throne. It was at the _Blue Boar_ at Leicester, that Richard III slept just before the battle of Bosworth. A large richly carved and gilded four-post bedstead was long preserved there and shown to sightseers as the bed which he occupied. In the time of Elizabeth, a Mr. Clarke, who kept the house, accidentally discovered a huge store of gold coins of the reign of Richard III, underneath the planks of the bedstead. He concealed his good fortune and thus from a poor condition he became rich, but this ill-gotten wealth brought a curse in its train. A maid-servant plotted with seven ruffians to rob the inn. Mrs. Clarke, interrupting them at their work, was strangled by the maid-servant, who was sentenced to be drawn and burnt, and her seven accomplices were hanged in the Market Place at Leicester in 1613.