“wool-halls,” combining a residence for the merchant with a warehouse for his wools, worsteds, and “pieces.” Very high wages were earned by the workpeople, even by children and old persons. It has been estimated that, at the middle of last century, not less than 20,000 hands in and around Colchester were employed in the woollen trade; but by the end of the century the number had sunk to less than 8,000. Many old persons still living can remember their parents’ or grand-parents’ accounts of the festivities on St. Blaize’s Day, the 3rd of February, when there were processions in mediæval fashion, with shepherdess and lamb, and men and women spinning and weaving, accompanied by a great deal of noise and fun, bell-ringing and band-playing, ribbons and banners, roystering and drinking. In the evening bonfires were lit upon the hills to commemorate (as the common people thought) the name of their patron, St. Blaize. The weaving of bunting for ships’ flags lingered in and around Sudbury until about twenty years ago, but has now quite died out in East Anglia. The RAM, at North Woolwich, perhaps, represents the crest of the Clothworkers’ Company.[65] Our six examples of the sign of the LAMB may, or may not, have had an heraldic origin. They probably represent the Lamb with the flag of the Apocalypse; but this was used as a crest by the Merchant Taylors’ Company.[66] The farthing issued in 1654 by “Tho. Lambe at Bvttls Gate in Colchester” bears a _Holy Lamb couchant_, and that of “Joseph Lamb of Lee [Leigh], 1664,” bears the same device. In both cases a rebus or pun on the name of the issuer is, of course, intended. The LAMBS at *Colchester and *Romford are both at least sixty years old. Probably the sign was first set up as an emblem of the woollen trade. The five instances in which the Lamb occurs in conjunction with a Lion have already been noticed (p. 63), and attention has also been drawn to the fact (p. 23) that some, at least, of our SHIPS are probably intended for _sheep_. The SHOULDER OF MUTTON, which occurs both at Great Totham and Fordham, probably represents the joint so often brought to table.