An old newspaper cutting says a house known as the SHIP AND SHOVEL “is situated near to Dagenham Beach, in Essex, eleven miles from London, where Parish and Hadbrook fought a hard battle of 41 rounds, on the 13th of March, 1820, which terminated in favour of Parish in thirty-eight minutes. The SHIP AND SHOVEL was the house of call for that day.” There is a LOBSTER SMACK at Canvey Island, a FISHING SMACK at Barking, an OYSTER SMACK at Burnham, and a SMACK at Leigh, concerning which Mr. H. W. King writes, that it was no doubt so named when the oyster-fishery flourished there in the last century. There is not now a smack belonging to the port. The house itself was for centuries a private residence of persons of good account. The sign of the PETER BOAT, which also occurs at Leigh, is apparently unique. A peter-boat was a sort of fishing-vessel, sharp both stem and stern, and half-decked, with a spritsail, instead of a mainsail and boom. Mr. King states that the inn derives its name from the fact that “all the fishing-boats at Leigh were formerly peter-boats. But, out of a fleet of 120 or more fishing-boats here now, only one peter-boat, I am told, remains, and that I have not seen. The house itself, of the descent of which I have a complete record since 1645, is built of timber and is of the middle of the seventeenth century or earlier. The present owners have held it since 1662, the landlord who now keeps the inn being about the sixth in direct descent. It is first mentioned as known by the sign of the Peter-boat in 1757. The then owner had come into possession in 1739, and had so named the house between those years.” At Vange there is a BARGE, at North Woolwich an OLD BARGE HOUSE, at Forest Gate a STEAMSHIP, and at Chelmsford a ROYAL STEAMER (probably an impaled sign). The Barge here mentioned was formerly the MAN WITH SEVEN WIVES, as Mr. King can recollect. At the time it belonged to a man named _Wife_. Presumably his family numbered seven individuals. There is also a beer-house of the same name at Rettendon, up to which place the river Crouch is navigable for barges. The PACKET occurs at *Harwich and *Manningtree. Sixty years ago there was another example at *Colchester. The sign of the FERRY-BOAT occurs at Walthamstow, North Fambridge, and Canewdon. Another house of the same name has recently disappeared from the county, as also a FERRY HOUSE. Sixty years ago the sign of the WHERRY (not noticed by Larwood and Hotten) occurred at *Mistley. The sign of the HOY still occurs at Tollesbury and at South Benfleet. Mr. King remarks that one would naturally expect to find this sign at the latter place, “as a long succession of hoymen carried on a lucrative business there. The HOY is now pictorially represented on the sign-board by a barge, though the house is still called the HOY; and a trade in hay, straw, and corn is still carried on in two or three barges.” The sign is not referred to in the _History of Sign-boards_. The following