The _White Hart_ at Scole, in Norfolk, once had the most expensive and elaborate sign of this character ever produced. High above the road it stretched, on one side attached to the house, and resting on a brick pier at the opposite end across the way. In the centre was a noble White Hart, carved in a stately wreath, while on each side were no less than twenty-four allegorical figures in compartments. The whole was designed by John Fairchild, in 1655, and cost £1,057. An engraving was published by Martin in 1740. By the way, this inn also possessed “a very large round bed big enough to hold fifteen or twenty couples in imitation of the great bed at Ware.” [Illustration: Sign of White Hart, Witham] Of existing signs, the most remarkable is the _Red Lion_ of Martlesham outside an inn which is itself both old and curious. This monster, a byword all over Suffolk, was probably at one time the figure-head of a ship, and local tradition ascribes it to one of the Dutch warships destroyed in the battle of Sole Bay, fought off Southwold in 1672. Outside the _Bear_ at Wantage stands a lifelike carved bear on a high pedestal; at the _Bear_ at Chelsham, in Surrey, a large white bear lurks amongst the shrubs of the front garden in a way very startling to timid passers-by, especially at dusk. The _Swan_ at Great Shefford, in Bucks, has a most effective sign, in the form of a large vane representing a swan; while the _White Horse_ at Ipswich, as in Mr. Pickwick’s time, “is rendered the more conspicuous by a stone statue of some rapacious animal with flowing mane and tail distantly resembling an insane cart-horse, which is elevated above the principal door.” The disused _Sun Inn_ at Saffron Walden, built about 1625, has for its sign a noble piece of plaster work in the tympanum representing the Sun supported by two giants. A curious old piece of carving which displays a white swan chained to a tree flanked by the arms of England and France forms the sign of the _Swan Inn_ at Clare, and probably is intended to commemorate some triumph of the House of Clarence over the Lancastrians. Another beautiful little inn, now disused and sadly neglected, the _Angel_ at Theale, has angel heads introduced over each of its dainty oriels. [Illustration: Angel Inn, Theale] Many of the _White Hart_ inns retain painted signboards of quite passable quality. At Chelmsford, the animal is carved and rests on a projecting bracket. More prominent, though not conceived in a very artistic spirit, is the _White Hart_ at Witham, cut out and painted on a huge piece of sheet copper. This is widely known as the most conspicuous and telling sign on the road from London to Ipswich.