In Cromwell’s _Excursions through Essex_ (i. p. 17) it is stated that “The SWAN, a very large and famous inn, anciently stood in the road near the farm called Shakestones.” The view of Romford given in Wright’s _History of Essex_ (1831, ii. p. 435) shows the graven sign of the WHITE SWAN Inn, projecting from the front of the building exactly as it does now. It appears from an old Manor Roll[72] that in 1572 there was a “tenement called the SWAN”--not necessarily an inn--in Coggeshall. The sign still exists there--namely, in East Street--though possibly not at the same house. It is, however, again mentioned in 1678 in _Bufton’s Diary_.[73] Mr. King finds mention in ancient deeds of a SWAN--either inn, shop, or tenement--at Prittlewell in 1652. In the _Records of the House of Gurney_ (p. 539) there is mention of “a messuage or tenement heretofore called or known by the name or sign of the SWAN, situate in the parish of St. Mary, Maldon,” in the seventeenth century. Perhaps the *SWAN Inn still existing in the High Street is the same house. In 1678 there was a BLACK SWAN at or near Audley End. Poor Robin (see p. 66) mentions it in his _Perambulation from Saffron Walden to London_. After his acquaintances had drunk heavily with him at the ROSE AND CROWN, Saffron Walden, whence he started, he says-- “Yet would my jovial friends on me attend, Part of my Journey unto Audley End, By them called Ninevah, but no great city, Though too much sin may be there, more’s the pity. There at the sign (of such a thing, I think, As never swam on pond or river’s brink) Of a Black Swan, I entered in. * * * * * Yet although of this sign there’s no such thing, It was a sign there was good drink within.” Of the well-known OLD FOUR SWANS at Waltham Cross Mr. E. Walford, in _Greater London_ (vol. i. p. 393), writes as follows:-- “It is undoubtedly an old building; but it is questionable whether it can properly lay claim to the antiquity that is locally assigned to it; for in it, according to tradition, the body of Queen Eleanor remained for the night preceding its solemn entry into London. Salmon considers this inn to have been the original manor-house of the honour of Richmond; and Gough says that it ‘bears marks of great antiquity in the forms of its chimneys, and the quantity of chestnut timber employed about it.’ A large signboard, supported on tall posts, placed on the opposite sides of the way, swings across the road, having on it the inscription, ‘Ye Olde Foure Swannes Hostelrie, 1260.’”