The BEAR occurs by himself only twice, namely, at Buttsbury (where he is at least forty years old), and at Romford. The BEAR at Buttsbury is mentioned in the Stock parish registers in 1673. Forty years ago there were also BEARS at Colchester and Great Baddow. We are probably more indebted to the old custom of bear-baiting for this sign than to Heraldry. Larwood and Hotten say that it was originally adopted by ale-houses as a pun on the word “beer.” If so, the pun was a very weak one. The WHITE BEAR is to be seen at Galleywood and at Stanford Rivers. At the latter place he has existed at least since 1789, and is represented on a board over the door, but not upon the swinging sign-board, as a Polar Bear picking his way over blocks of ice. The sign of the WHITE BEAR is not a modern one. It was used in the seventeenth century, and both of our Essex examples are over forty years old. The Queen of Richard III. used a White Bear as her badge, and this perhaps originated the sign. Of the ELEPHANT AND CASTLE, a very old device, we have two instances in Essex, one at Harwich, and the other at Colchester. Neither seems to have been in existence twenty years ago. Most probably they are named after the famous old coaching inn at Newington Butts; but they may have originally been cutlers’ signs. The elephant with a castle on his back (as he was generally represented in the Middle Ages) formed the crest of the Cutlers’ Company.[67] At Great Baddow, Rayleigh, and elsewhere the device serves as a beer-house sign. The GOAT AND BOOTS on *East Hill, Colchester, though over forty years old, is a sign which is not noticed in the _History of Sign-boards_. It is, doubtless, a corruption of the not-uncommon sign of the GOAT IN BOOTS, which appears to be a caricature of Welshmen, and not a corruption of the Dutch description of Mercury, _der goden boode_ (the gods’ messenger), as is often stated. We have in Essex no example of the not-uncommon sign of the GOAT AND COMPASSES, which is usually supposed to be a corruption of the Puritan motto, “God encompasses us.” This explanation, however, is not sound. The motto could never have been represented pictorially upon the sign-board, and we know that pictorial representation was the sole aim and object of the sign in olden times. Probably the sign is merely a compound one; or it may represent the arms of the Cordwainers’ Company[68] in a corrupted form. To this origin may be certainly traced the sign of the THREE GOATS’ HEADS, which, however, does not occur in Essex. The SQUIRREL’S HEAD at Squirrel’s Heath, Romford, has no doubt some connection with the locality. It was not in existence forty years ago. The sign of the THREE SQUIRRELS, which is not found in Essex, has been in use for over two centuries.