The MAID’S HEAD at Thorpe-le-Soken is, in all probability, not a sign put up by some enamoured publican. As a general rule the sign, wherever it appears, has been derived from the arms of the Mercers’ Company, already given (p. 33). Sir William Parr, K.G., and also his grand-daughter, Queen Catherine Parr, both bore the same device as a badge. But in the case of the example at Thorpe there can be little doubt that the sign is a really ancient one, and that it represents the crest of the D’Arcy family, Barons of Chiche,[90] to whom, in 1551, Edward VI. granted the manor of Thorpe and neighbouring lands, which long afterwards remained in the family. The same sign often occurs elsewhere as the MAIDEN HEAD. There was apparently a house of this name (not necessarily an inn) at Chelmsford in the seventeenth century, as the Rev. R. E. Bartlett finds the following entry in the parish registers:--“1620, Matthew Prentys of Chelmsford, husbandman and householder at the Maidenhead in Chelmsford, was buried the xiiii. of May, being Sunday.” The VILLAGE MAID, which occurs at Bradfield, is a very modern sign, and is not mentioned by Larwood and Hotten. Probably the landlord set it up in honour of some damsel of his acquaintance. The MERMAID, though only a semi-human sign, is most conveniently noticed here. There is no example of it now existing in the county, though it occurs on the farthing token of Michael Arnold of Colchester. As a sign it used formerly to be not uncommon. The *SILENT WOMAN is the name of a public-house, with a truly pictorial sign, at Widford. The signs of the GOOD WOMAN and the QUIET WOMAN, which occur occasionally in other counties, are identical with this, and, all alike, constitute a piece of unwarrantable slander on the fair sex, being intended to convey the idea that a woman can only be silenced by being deprived of her head. Larwood and Hotten say (p. 455): “There is a very curious example of this sign at Widford, near Chelmsford, representing on one side a half-length portrait of Henry VIII., on the reverse, a woman without a head, dressed in the costume of the latter half of the last century, with the inscription _Forte Bonne_. The addition of the portrait of Henry VIII. has led to the popular belief that the headless woman is meant for Anne Boleyn, though probably it is simply a combination of the KING’S HEAD and GOOD WOMAN.” [Illustration: THE SILENT WOMAN AT WIDFORD.] The inscription on the sign-board is, presumably, intended to be the French for “Very Good,” but it is spelled “_Fort Bon_,” and it has been “_Fort Bone_.” A writer in _Once a Week_ (N. S., ii. p. 487) says: