Good Easter. The BRICKLAYERS’ ARMS[27] occur three times, namely, at Colchester, Stondon, and Bocking (beer-shop). The ROYAL HOTEL at Purfleet is famed for its whitebait. Until recently it was known as the BRICKLAYERS’ ARMS, evidently, as Mr. Palin thinks,[28] because the Bricklayers’ Company formerly worked the huge chalk quarries close at hand. The BUTCHERS’ ARMS[29] occur at Wimbish, Felstead, Stambourne, and Woodham Ferris (beer-shop). Probably the BULL’S HEAD, the BOAR’S HEAD, and the FLY AND BULLOCK, to be noticed hereafter, are all connected with the arms of this Company, which appear on the halfpenny of “John Harvey of Rochfoord” in 1668. The CARPENTERS’ ARMS[30] occur eight times in the county, and also often serve as a beer-house sign. One near Chelmsford is kept by a carpenter, as is, doubtless, often the case. There can be no doubt that the COMPASSES, which occurs six times, and the THREE COMPASSES, which appears twice, are derived from the arms of this Company. A house near Waltham Abbey, now known by the latter form of the sign, seems in 1789 to have been called the COMPASSES merely. The AXE AND COMPASSES at Arkesden is probably a modern, but certainly an appropriate, combination; or the axe may be intended for one of the adzes in the arms of the Coopers’ Company, for the COOPERS’ ARMS[31] themselves appear at Chadwell Heath, Aldham, Chelmsford, and Romford, the last two being beer-houses. Although the arms of the Cutlers’ Company[32] are not now to be seen on our sign-boards, there can be little doubt that the TWO SWORDS CROSSED, which appeared on the undated farthing of “Nathaniell Smith in Thacksteed,” were derived from the arms of that Company, Thaxted having formerly been a seat of the cutlery trade, as the name “Cutlers’ Green,” in the immediate vicinity, indicates. The WATERMAN’S ARMS[33] was formerly a sign at Leigh, but whether of an inn or private house does not appear. Mr. H. W. King is able, by means of evidence obtained from old deeds, to give a complete account of the house which displayed this sign (and which was built about the time of Charles I.) from 1650; but there are earlier notices of it. Portions of it, built of oak, are still standing, but much altered. When it first became an inn does not appear. It is first mentioned as having been such in 1746, when it is described as “two tenements now and lately called the Waterman’s Arms.” Probably, therefore, it had even then ceased to be an inn, and had been divided into two dwelling-houses. Under the floor of one of the rooms, some years since, were found several small coins of Charles II., and a leaden tavern token, undated, but probably of the seventeenth century. On it was a hand or arm, pouring from a tankard into a cup or glass. Forty years ago there was a POULTERERS’ ARMS[34] at Chelmsford. Larwood and Hotten do not notice this sign. [Illustration: THE CUPS HOTEL, COLCHESTER.]