“There are not only pleasant recollections of ‘slippered ease,’ but historical associations, connected with the old Inn. Here royal heads have rested, and warriors have halted as they hurried off to draw the sword on fields of military renown. Within its rooms, martyrs have passed the last night of life, in the fiery days of religious persecution, on their way to the fatal stake. In the old war, its roof often resounded with the mad jollity of prizemen and privateers, who had just brought their rich booty into Harwich, and, as they posted off to London, had halted at the well-known hostelry to make merry with their gains. A quarter of a century ago, between forty and fifty stage-coaches passed its door daily, most of which pulled up, if they did not pause, to allow the travellers to partake of the provision made for them; while numberless pairs of post-horses stood saddled in its capacious stables.” Dickens mentions this house in _Pickwick Papers_ (1st Edition, p. 161), when Mr. Weller, Senior, relates how he transported Messrs. Job Trotter and Charles Fitz-Marshall from “the Black Boy at Chelmsford ... right through to Ipswich.” Mr. Chancellor has ascertained that, in a deed dated 1642, this inn is described as “heretofore known by the name or sign of the CROWN or NEW INN, or the KING’S ARMS, and later as the BLACK BOY.” That it was the BLACK BOY in 1636 is certain, for Taylor, “the Water Poet,” in his _Catalogue of Tavernes_, mentions it as one of the chief inns in the town at that time. In 1660, the Rev. R. E. Bartlett finds it recorded in the Chelmsford registers that “Andrew Speller, a dumb man, who lived at the Black Boy in Chelmsford, was buried the 2 day of August.” It has probably retained the same sign ever since. This frequent change at so early a date is very interesting. It seems to indicate (as Mr. Chancellor suggests) that, on the house passing out of the hands of the De Veres, it became an inn, and that, although it may have displayed the sign of the CROWN (see p. 166), it was commonly known as the NEW INN. Afterwards, for some reason, it came to be styled the KING’S ARMS, and still later the BLACK BOY, though why, it is not apparent. At the time of his demise, this “Old Boy” (as he may be familiarly styled) was, therefore, at least 250 years old. It might be thought strange that having existed so long, and having begat the seven sons already mentioned, he never grew into a “Black Man,” but died as he had so long lived, a “Black Boy”! A BLACK BOY formerly existed in Saffron Walden, as shown by the following entries in the Corporation records:--“March 27th, 1682, ‘Spent at the Black Boy 12 pence,’” and a little later 4s. 6d. was “spent at the Black Boy with the Chamberlains when we assessed the fines on the Quakers.” In the Waltham Abbey parish register is the following entry:--“Judith Sutton, from y^{e} Blacks, Bur.