The COCK is a very ancient and very common sign. Larwood and Hotten say that it was already in use in the time of the Romans. We have no less than eighteen examples of the simple COCK, and an OLD COCK occurs at Sheering. The ancient and well-known COCK Hotel at Epping finds frequent mention in the numbers of the _Chelmsford Chronicle_ for the year 1786. Taylor (see p. 28) also mentions it by name as long ago as 1636. It is a very old house, though now re-fronted with brick. The Rev. Wm. Cole, in his voluminous MSS. in the British Museum, says that on the 26th of October, 1774, he “arrived at Epping in the dusk of the evening, and lodged and dined late at the COCK Inn.” The COCK Inn still existing at Stock is several times mentioned in the parish registers, namely, in 1634, 1639, and 1693. On the latter occasion, “a stranger who died at the Cock, being a poor man, was buried by the constables, November 20.” The COCKE Inn at Great Coggeshall (not now existing) was once a house of good standing. In 1614 James I. granted it to Henry Eades, and in 1616 to Peregrine Gastrell and Ralph Lounds.[75] Not improbably in this case the sign was derived from the arms of the Abbey of Coggeshall.[76] The COCK, near the Church at Waltham Abbey, is a very ancient inn. It finds frequent mention in the old parish registers. The marriage of John Broadly, of the COCK Inn, is recorded as early as February, 1599. In 1662 there was a COCK at Chelmsford, which does not appear to be in existence now. It is mentioned as being “on the hither side of the bridge” (_i.e._, the side nearest to Romford) in the _Account of the Murder of Thomas Kidderminster_, already referred to. This was probably the same inn mentioned by Foxe in his _Book of Martyrs_ when he says that “one Richard Potto the elder, an inn-holder, dwelling at the sign of the Cocke, did much trouble” George Eagles, who was martyred in 1557. For the prevalence of this sign we have probably to thank the barbarous old custom of cock-fighting, as is obvious in the case of the sign of the FIGHTING COCKS, which occurs at Little Sampford and Wendens Ambo, and the GAME COCK at Chadwell Heath. But the cock is also by no means an uncommon heraldic bearing, and several combinations into which the bird enters have probably had an heraldic origin. For instance, the sign of the COCK AND CROWN, which existed at Colchester forty years back, may have represented one of the badges of Henry VIII., which was a _white cock crowned, with the cypher H.R._ The same king also often used a _white cock crowned_, as one of his supporters. At the same time it may simply have been an impaled sign of very modern date. In any case it is very rare. The COCK AND BELL, which appears at High Easter, Writtle, and *Romford, is an apparently meaningless sign, and is probably an impalement. The last-named example seems, however, to have been in existence for at least a century, as it is mentioned in an advertisement