The sign of the NEW INN, which is the commonest sign in Devonshire, and occurs no less than one hundred and four times in that county, is only twice met with in Essex, but there is also a beer-house so called at Romford. Evidently the Conservative nature of the majority of Essex folk leads them to prefer things _old_, instead of new. At Plaistow there is a GREEN GATE, and forty years since there was a *BLUE POSTS at Witham, in both of which cases the colour of the portals probably served the same office as a sign in distinguishing the house. Neither sign is mentioned in the _History of Sign-boards_, though the former is certainly a century old, as it is mentioned in an advertisement in the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for January 5, 1787, and the latter is referred to in another advertisement on the 23rd of the following month. It was an old house of good standing, as it is also mentioned in the _Very Young Lady’s Tour from London to Aldborough and Back_ (1804, see p. 37). The writer says: “Travellers frequently boast of the charms of an inn, But the Blue Posts at Witham’s the best I have seen, The rooms are so clean, so delicious the diet, The landlord so civil, so spruce, and so quiet, The servants all round so desirous to please, That you find yourself here most completely at ease. So we supp’d, and we slept, and we breakfasted too, And then bid to Witham a parting adieu.” The house was closed as an inn some time since, and is now a china shop, kept by a prominent Witham teetotal advocate. Its door-posts are still painted blue. Sixty years ago there was another inn of this name at *Colchester. No Essex inn now displays the sign of the GATE, but there are beer-houses of that name at Saffron Walden, Bardfield, and Dagenham. At the two last-named places the houses bear the following very unpoetic couplet:-- “This Gate hangs high, and hinders none, Refresh and pay and travel on.” At Wanstead there is a RED HOUSE, presumably so called from its colour. In 1789 there was an EPPING PLACE Inn at Epping, and a BUSH-FAIR HOUSE at Latton. The ESSEX INN, No 41, Aldgate High Street, London, E., is, without doubt, so named because it forms the stopping-place of many hay-carters and other travellers by road from Essex up to town. Railways are referred to thirty-one times in all on Essex sign-boards, although, as might be expected, mention is very rarely made of railways among the signs of forty years ago. Thus we have five examples of the RAILWAY INN, one of the RAILWAY ARMS, two of the RAILWAY BELL, seven of the RAILWAY HOTEL, and sixteen of the RAILWAY TAVERN.