fully-licensed houses are compelled to display signs. There does not appear to have been any complete list of the inns of the county published more than forty years ago, but even the lists extending back that far may advantageously be compared with that of the present time. Although very many of our signs still remain the same now as they were then, numerous changes are noticeable. These are, however, generally in the direction that might be expected. Old heraldic devices are slowly disappearing and giving place to modern vulgarisms. For instance, so lately as the year 1868 RAILWAY INNS and RAILWAY TAVERNS combined only numbered twenty, while at the present time we have no less than thirty-one. It is quite clear that in the early part of this century, before railways came into existence, these signs must have been altogether unknown. Their places were then filled by such signs as the COACH AND HORSES or the HORN AND HORSESHOES, and other signs now going out of fashion. A great deal of very useful and interesting information as to the signs in use in Essex two centuries ago is also to be obtained from an examination of the list of seventeenth-century tokens given by Mr. Boyne.[11] These tokens were issued very numerously by tradesmen during the Commonwealth and the reign of Charles I., when the national coinage was in an extremely debased condition. In the “field,” or centre, of the coin there was generally a device, which usually represented the sign under which the issuer traded. Many of the objects thus represented have, of course, disappeared from the sign-boards of the present day, though very many others are still familiar public-house signs. Mr. Boyne is, however, of the opinion that not more than one-fifth of the tokens now extant were issued by tavern-keepers, the rest having been circulated by ordinary tradesmen. Reference has already been made to the fact that many of the common heraldic signs had their origin in the use formerly made of the arms of the various Trade Guilds or companies as signs; and a hasty examination of the list of Essex tokens given by Boyne shows that between 80 and 90, or 37 per cent., bear arms or emblems belonging to one or other of these ancient companies. Thus, the Grocers appear about 25 times, the Bakers about 13 times, the Tallow-chandlers 10 times, the Woolmen 8 times, the Clothworkers 4 times, the Blacksmiths and the Drapers each 3 times, the Mercers, the Apothecaries, and the Barber Surgeons each twice, and the Brewers, the Fishmongers, the Butchers, the Fruiterers, and the Cutlers each once. Each of these signs will be hereafter treated of in its proper place.