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. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER X. _MISCELLANEOUS SIGNS._ The signs which still remain to be treated of defy all efforts to classify them. All classification, indeed, when applied to this subject, is very vague and unsatisfactory. The following will, therefore, be spoken of as “Miscellaneous Signs,” and will be taken in any order found most convenient. Those already noticed under other headings will not be referred to again, and many are not of sufficient interest to be worth noticing. The great majority are uninteresting modern vulgarisms, while very few are of heraldic origin. Many signs of this class are named after places or towns, or after objects of local or general celebrity. Such are the ALBION, the BALMORAL CASTLE, the WINDSOR CASTLE, the WALMER CASTLE, the TROSSACHS HOTEL, the BRIDGE HOTEL, the GIBRALTAR TAVERN, the GRAVING DOCK TAVERN, the HIGHAM HILL TAVERN, the HALLSVILLE TAVERN, the CAMBRIDGE HOTEL, the COMMON GATE, the LONDON TAVERN, the DOCK HOUSE TAVERN, the FOREST GATE, the FOREST GLEN, the TOWN OF AYR, the TRAFALGAR TAVERN, the *WATERLOO TAVERN (at Colchester), the TIDAL BASIN TAVERN, the HALF-WAY TAVERN (at Southchurch), the NORFOLK INN, the GROUND RENT TAVERN, the BRICK AND TILE INN at Copford, two BRITISH INNS, two CANTEENS, two FLAGS, two UNION FLAGS, two FOUNTAINS, the STORES at Willingale Doe (beer-house), the GOLDEN HOUSE at Forest Gate, an IVY CHIMNEYS (beer-house) at Theydon Bois, the RED HOUSE at Ilford, two GUNS, two HOPES (one at Southend being at least sixty years old), the IMPERIAL TAVERN, the LOCOMOTIVE, the NEW MILL, the OLD MILL, two PIER HOTELS, two PUNCH BOWLS, the QUART POT, the RED TAPE TAVERN, several ROYAL STANDARDS, the TELEGRAPH, the TEMPLE, the THATCHED HOUSE, the OLD THATCHED HOUSE (a very old inn at Epping), the WARREN INN, the TOLLHOUSE, the WAGGON, and the WAGGON AND HORSES, all of which are probably less than forty years old. It is doubtful whether a single one of these signs could claim an heraldic origin. Most of them lie upon the outskirts of London. There are now four ALMA TAVERNS, though twenty years ago there was but one. The name, of course, commemorates the battle of Alma, but why fresh inns should be thus named so long after the event, is by no means obvious. There is a BOWLING GREEN at Elmstead, near Colchester, and sixty years ago there was another at Dunmow. The WINDMILL, which is an ancient sign, occurs no less than eight times within the county. In most cases houses have adopted this sign on account of there being a windmill adjacent to them. At Romford there has been for at least sixty years an OLD WINDMILL AND BELLS, which is doubtless an impaled sign.