Mr. F. T. Veley of Chelmsford possesses a fine old oil painting from which this engraving was evidently made, though the two differ in some particulars. The figures and the houses are almost precisely alike in both, but the painting has not the signs and sign-posts shown in the engraving. In both the width of the street is much too great. The engraving has been reduced by the photographic process, and is herein made use of as a frontispiece,[7] whilst the design of the remarkably fine iron framework supporting the sign of the Lion has been reproduced upon the cover of the book. It is a remarkable fine example of the elaborate and ornamental sign-iron within which swung many sign-boards of a hundred years ago. Other examples, but less elegant, still remain here and there in the county, generally much rusted with age. Among these may be mentioned those of the SIX BELLS at Dunmow, which is dated 1778 (p. 168), the BELL at Bardfield (p. 170), and the BELL at Castle Hedingham (p. 150), all of which will be found depicted hereafter, though with other signs attached. Leaving now the consideration of the _origin of the use of signs_, in order to discuss the _origins of the various devices used as signs_, we may well feel some surprise at first that the ancient and extremely entertaining, though now much decayed, art of Heraldry should have given us, at the present day, so many of our commonest signs as it obviously has done. A somewhat hasty examination of the list of Essex signs will show that something like 40 per cent. of the whole have probably been derived, either directly or indirectly, from Heraldry. The same statement would probably be found to hold good of the rest of England. So obvious is it that a very large number of inn-signs have been in some way derived from Heraldry, that it is surprising this connection has not received a much fuller recognition in the past than it has done. It is impossible, even for those most strongly inclined to disbelieve in the heraldic origin of a majority of our signs, to deny that very many of them, at least, have been so derived. Allusion is here made to such signs as the GRIFFIN, the BLUE BOAR, the GREEN DRAGON, the BLUE LION, the RED LION, the THREE CROWNS, the WHITE HART, the FLEUR-DE-LYS, the ROSE AND CROWN, the CROSS KEYS, and many others, the difficulty of ascribing which to any other than an heraldic origin will be at once apparent. Indeed, the fact that a very large proportion of our signs are of an heraldic derivation seems to require no stronger proof than will be found in the following pages. The next thing, therefore, will be to show how this came about.