On the map of the road between London and Harwich, given in Ogilby’s _Itinerarium Angliæ_, published in 1675, a house--presumably an inn--called the MONK’S HEAD is shown on the east side of the road, exactly opposite New Hall Park. There can be no doubt that this sign represented, not the head of an ecclesiastic, but that of General Monk, the great promoter of the Restoration, although he had been created Duke of Albemarle some fifteen years before. After the Restoration, New Hall was purchased by, or for, General Monk, and he lived there, as Morant says, “in very great splendour, to the diminution of his estates.” He died in 1670, and was succeeded by his son. Forty years ago there was a FRIAR’S Inn in Fryer’s Street, Chelmsford, but it has now disappeared. At Rayleigh there is a PAUL PRY (beer-house). At Widford a beer-house keeper has adopted as his sign that modern, though distinguished, Essex worthy, SIR EVELYN WOOD. Another at Waltham Abbey has selected the SULTAN. Others, at Saffron Walden and Waltham Abbey respectively, do honour to the OLD ENGLISH GENTLEMAN. Probably these latter have in their minds the hero of the song, rather than any gentleman in particular. At Theydon Garnon there is a MERRY FIDDLERS, which displays no less than three sign-boards. At Becontree Heath there is a beer-shop with the same sign. The landlord of the former states that, although he has endeavoured to unearth the meaning of his sign, he has hitherto failed. He adds, however, that, previous to his own occupation, the house had been in one family for many generations, and that for long it displayed a pictorial sign-board representing THREE FIDDLERS, but these have of late given place to the present sign. What particular three fiddlers are meant, is difficult to explain. The house bore merely its present name of the MERRY FIDDLERS in 1789. Larwood and Hotten do not mention the sign. At Abbots Roothing there is a COOPERS (beer-house), a sign which is doubtless the same as that of the COOPERS’ Arms. At Willingale Doe there is a FERRY MAN. Probably he has retired from business and settled there, as it is hard to discover any ferry at that place. About sixty-five years ago *BISHOP BLAYS, the patron saint of wool-combers, appeared as a sign at Colchester. It was a most appropriate sign in that town in the seventeenth century, when it was an important seat of the woollen trade. *NEPTUNE appears beside his “native element” at the Hythe, Colchester. Sixty years ago there was a *JOLLY SAILOR at Harwich, a *SAILOR’S RETURN at Grays, and a *MARINER at Colchester. These signs were all appropriate enough, being situated in maritime places, but the same cannot be said of the *THREE MARINERS which appeared at Chelmsford at the same period. Sixty years ago, too, there was to be seen at Colchester the curious sign of the *SAILOR AND BALL, which Larwood and Hotten do not mention. Probably it was not an impaled sign, but took its name from some game of ball played by sailors.