between the picturesque past and the prosaic present—rich as it was in
remembrances associated with the birthtime of English poetry, is now
a thing of the past. We have but few of these relics of Bygone London
remaining; it is true the Tower, St. John's Gate, and the house of
Sir John Crosby still linger with us; but who knows how soon the site
of the Tower will be wanted for a railway station, the gateway of the
old knights be found to be an obstruction in the way of Pickford's
vans, and the old Bishopsgate Street house swept away by the broom of
"improvement?"
If there be one spot within the bounds of London that may be especially
termed classic—which may be looked upon as sacred to poetry—that spot
is Southwark, despite its hop warehouses, in the midst of which stood
the Tabard. The legend of the ferryman's daughter and the foundation of
the monastery and church of St. Mary Overies is redolent of romance.
In Clink Street, Shakespeare lived and wrote, and in the theatre on
Bankside he gave utterance to his inspired imaginings; in St. Saviour's
Church sleeps Gower, the contemporary of Chaucer; and in one grave
repose Fletcher and Massinger; whilst on Bankside, in twin fraternity,
dwelt Beaumont and Fletcher.
More than to others should this spot and the Tabard be dear to the
citizens of London, for he to whose shrine pilgrims of the hostelry
were wending their way was the son of a London merchant; and he who
describes, and has rendered immortal, that riding to Canterbury, in
April of the year of grace, 1383, was born within the walls of the City.
The Tabard owed its origin to the Abbey of Newere Mynstre, Winchester,
which was founded by King Alfred, and afterwards removed outside the
walls, when it assumed the name of Hyde Abbey, _temp._ Henry I. Alwyn,
the eighth abbot, was uncle to King Harold, and fought, with twelve
of his monks, under his standard at Hastings. In process of time the
Abbey waxed rich, and in 1307 the Abbot purchased a plot of land near
the palace of the Bishop of Winchester, and thereon, as Stow informs
us, "built a faire house for him and his train when he came to the
City to Parliament." At this spot was a convergence of roads from
the southern and western counties, from whence started eastward "The
Pilgrim's Road" to Canterbury, in consequence of which the Abbot built,
in close contiguity, a hostelry for the reception of pilgrims, where
they might repose until a sufficient number was gathered together to
proceed in company for protection from the dangers of the road. It
was built in the picturesque style of the period, with gables to the
street, cross timberings and latticed windows; in the interior was a
large courtyard, with balustraded galleries running round it, leading
to dormitories; and there was a "Pilgrims' Hall," a large room some
45 feet in length, with open fireplaces and long tables, at which the
pilgrims dined and supped during their sojourn. At the dissolution,
1538, it was sold, along with the Abbot's House, and is described as
"The Tabard of the Monastery of Hyde, and the Abbot's place, with the
stables and gardens belonging thereunto." Still, however, it retained
its character of an inn, and in the reign of Elizabeth was repaired
and partially rebuilt by "Master J. Preston." A view of it, as it then
appeared, is given in Urry's edition of Chaucer, 1721, representing it
in the old timbered and gabled style, with a beam stretching across the
road, from which the swinging and creaking sign was pendant, and on
which was an inscription,—"This is the Inn where Sir Jeffry Chaucer and
the nine-and-twenty pilgrims lay on their journey to Canterbury, anno
1383." In 1673, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament, this cross beam,
with its supporting posts, was taken down, but the inscription, after
the rebuilding, was painted over the gateway, where it remained until
1813, when it was erased.
The street front of the inn was consumed in the great fire of
Southwark, 1676, along with 600 other houses, but was immediately
rebuilt, presumably in facsimile of the original, with its courtyard,
galleries, pilgrims' hall, and quaint old sleeping-rooms, and it is
possible that some parts which escaped the fire may have been a portion
of the Tabard, where Chaucer sat as "a chiel takin' notes," and where
the pretty prioress, the wife of Bath, the knight and the squire,
and the Sumpnour and the Pardoner chatted and laughed and flirted;
certainly the courtyard was the identical spot where the merry party
mounted their nags and palfreys, to ride forth along the "Pilgrims'
Road" to St. Thomas's shrine. The pilgrims' room was divided into
three apartments; on its walls was formerly a fragment of tapestry,
representing a procession of pilgrims, which afterwards disappeared.
After the fire, says Aubrey, "the ignorant landlord or tenant, instead
of the ancient sign, put up the Talbot or Dog." Truly he must have been
ignorant or destitute of veneration for antiquity or poetical feeling,
to commit such an act of vandalism, and his successors cannot have been
much better not to have restored the old time-honoured designation.
For all time will the name of Harry Bailly, the jovial landlord of
the Tabard towards the end of the fourteenth and beginning of the
fifteenth centuries, be remembered. He was a notable burgess of
Southwark, and evidently a popular character; he is supposed to be
identical with Henry Tite Morton, who, in 1380, was assessed, with
his wife Christiana, at 2s. to a subsidy, rented the customs of the
borough in fee farm at £10 per annum; was bailiff to Southwark, whence
his appellation, Henry le Bailly; represented the borough in the
Parliament of Westminster, 50 Edward III., and in that of Gloucester 2
Richard II. A jolly fellow he seems to have been, well adapted for his
profession:—
"A seemly man our hoste was withall
For to have been a Marshal in a Hall;
A large man he was, with eyen steep,
A fairer burgess is there none in Chepe:
Bold of his speech and wise and well ytaught,
And of manhood, him lacked righte naught;
Eke thereto was he right a merry man
And spake of mirth amonges ot'thing
When than we hadden made our reckonings."
It was in the merry spring time of the year 1383, as the inscription on
the sign informs us—
"Whenne that April with his showres sote
The drought of March, hath pierced to the rote,
And bathed every vein in such licour
Of which virtue engendered is the flower,"
a time of the year when
"Longer folk to go on pilgrimage,
And specially from every shire's end
Of Englande, to Canterbury they wend,
The holy, blissful martyr for to seek,
That them hath holpen, when that they were sick,"
that Chaucer and his company met at the Tabard.
St. Thomas of Canterbury was murdered in the year 1170, by four
knights, instigated thereto by a passionate exclamation of King Henry
II., who was at feud with him relative to the respective rights of
Monarchy and the church, and his shrine during the intervening years
had become one of the most popular in the kingdom; the Saxon people,
down-trodden by their Norman lords, looking upon him as a sort of
clerical Robin Hood, the defender of the rights of the poor against
Regal and Baronial oppression, and in process of time it had become
resplendant with precious metals and gems, the offerings of pious
devotees. Says Chaucer—
"Befell that in that season, on a day,
In Southwark, at the Tabard, as I lay,
Ready to wenden on my pilgrimage
To Canterbury, with devout courage,
At night was come unto that hostelry;
With nine and twenty in a company,
Of sundry folk by aventure yfall
In fellowship, and pilgrims were they all,
That toward Canterbury wouldeh ride.
The stables and the chambers weren wide
And well we weren eased atte best" (well accommodated).
He then gives a series of photographs of the pilgrims, representatives
of various classes of the people of England at a most eventful period
of our history—a period when Wycliffe was laying the foundations of
the Protestant Church; when Wat Tyler and his fellow serfs were
rising in assertion of their liberties; when Chaucer and Gower were
fashioning the English language into shape, as contradistinguished from
the Norman-French of the Court; when the feeble Richard occupied the
throne, to be shortly driven hence by his cousin Bolingbroke, which
eventually led to the Wars of the Roses, and resulted in the extinction
of a vast number of the Norman families, rendering it easier for the
Saxon element of the kingdom afterwards to gain the ascendancy.
Amongst the company are a knight, a worthy man, who had done deeds of
prowess in all parts of the world, yet was meek as a maid, who was
dressed in a "fustian gipon, alle besmattered" with marks of travel;
along with him was his son, "a younge squire, a lover and lusty
bachelor," with "lockes curl'd, as they were laid in press;" also his
attendant, a yeoman "clad in green," and under his belt "a sheaf of
peacock arrows bright and keen."
There was also a prioress
"That of her smiling was full simple and coy;
Whose greatest oath n'as of Saint Eloy,"
who sung the service "entuned in her nose full sweetly, and French she
spoke full fair and fetisly, after the school of Stratford-atte-Bow."
"A monk there was, an outsider, that loved venery;
Of pricking and of hunting for the hare,
Was all his lust for no cost would he spare."
"A friar there was, a wanton and merry Limitour (a licensed beggar), a
full solemne man, who
Was an easy man to give penance
There as he wist (to those he knew) to have a good pittance." Who
"Knew well the taverns in every town,
And every hosleter and gay tapstere,
Better than a lazar or a beggere."
A merchant with a forked beard, "a Flandrish beaver hat, and bootes
clasped fair and fetisly."
A threadbare clerk of Oxenford, on a horse as "lean as a rake," who
would rather have twenty bookes of Aristotle and his philosophy,
"Then robès rich, fiddle, or psaltry."
A sergeant-at-law, "wary and wise, that often had been at the Porvis"
(the portico of St. Paul's, where lawyers met for consultation).
A Frankelin, with white beard and sanguine complexion, and a silken
"Gipciere" (purse) hanging from his girdle; a pompous sort of man, fond
of good living, in whose house "snowed meat and drink, who was an
important man in his county, lord and sire at sessions, high sheriff,
and full often knight of the shire."
A haberdasher, a carpenter, a webbe (weaver), a dyer, and a tapiser;
citizens with pouches full of silver; "yclothed in one livery of a
solemn and great fraternity."
"Well seemed each of them a fair burgess,
To sitte in a Guildhall, on the dais,"
and all fitted by wisdom to be aldermen.
With them had they a cook, "to boil the chickens and the marrow bones,"
who, perhaps in consequence of the hot nature of his vocation, had a
wondrous _penchant_ for "draughts of London ale."
A shipman, "who rode upon a rouncy (hack) as best he could," somewhat
after the style of modern mariners.
A doctor of physic, "well grounded in astronomy," who
"Kept his patient a full great deal
In houres by his magic natural."
A wife of Bath, who had had five husbands and was ready for a sixth; a
buxom dame, dressed in scarlet hosen and hat as broad as a buckler, who
smirked and smiled upon the squire, much as the widow Wadman did, in
an after age, upon Uncle Toby.
A poore parson, "rich of holy thought and work," a learned man and
clerk "that Christe's Gospel woulde preach living at home in his parish
instead of running up to London," unto St. Paul's, to seek for a
chantry for souls.
"For Christe's love and his Apostles twelve,
He taught, but first he followed it himselve."
With whom was his brother, a ploughman, "that had of dung laid many
of fother: a true swinker, who would thresh and dike and delve for
Christ's sake, for every poore wight, withouten hire, if it lay in his
might."
A miller, "a stout carle for the nones, full big of brawn and eke of
bones, with beard red as any sow or fox, a wart on the cop of his nose,
whence sprouted a crop of heres, red as the bristles of a sowe's ears;
a jangler and goliardeis (reveller), who could well stealen corn and
tollen thrice," and moreover "a baggepipe well could he blow and soun,
and there withal he brought us out of town."
A Manciple, or purchaser of victuals for Inns of Court.
A Reeve, or land steward, a slender, choleric man, closely shaven and
shorn, with calfless legs, who "ever rode hinderest of the rout."
A Sumpnour, or appositor of an Ecclesiastical court, "with a fine red
cherubinne's face and a visage with knobs on his cheeks, of which
children were afraid; a great drinker and garlic eater, and likerous
(lecherous) as a sparrow."
His friend, a Pardoner, fresh from Rome, with a wallet "bretful of
pardons and relics," making more money of them in a day than the parson
of the parish in "moneths tway."
When this motley company had settled their reckoning with Harry Bailly,
their host, he offered to be their guide to Canterbury, and as this was
not the time when pilgrims hobbled along with peas in their shoes, he
suggested that, to beguile the tedium of the way, they should each tell
a tale, one going and another returning, and that he who told the best,
should, on their return to the Tabard, be entertained at supper at the
cost of the rest, which proposition was carried by acclamation; and the
following morning the merry party mounted their nags in the court-yard
and set forth, headed by the landlord, beside whom rode the miller,
playing lustily on his bag-pipes until they got clear of the town,
when the tale-telling commenced.
It may be supposed that they arrived safely at Canterbury, knelt at the
shrine of the martyr, purchased their brooches, in evidence of their
having been there, and caroused again on their return in the Pilgrims'
Hall; but Chaucer leaves them on the road, prevented, perhaps, by
troubles or death from giving the tales of the backward journey.
As the pilgrimages are coming into fashion, it may be that fresh
gatherings may take place in Southwark; but it will not be at the
Tabard, under the guidance of Harry Bailly, but at the London Bridge
terminus, under the leadership of Cook, the excursionist; and it
is to be feared that, instead of a Chaucer to depict the humours
of the journey, their proceedings will be narrated by a newspaper
correspondent.
The Priory of the Holy Trinity, Aldgate.
Not long had the Norman dynasty ruled over England. Scarcely more than
a third of a century had elapsed since the Norman Duke unfurled his
standard at Hastings, and in that interval the first William and the
second William had passed away, and Henry le Beauclerk, by an act of
usurpation had leapt into the vacant throne, which belonged by right
to his elder brother Robert. The Saxon people, reft of their lands,
deprived of their liberties, and subject to oppressive laws, had become
the vassals and serfs of their Norman feudal lords, and chafed with
sullen submission under the yoke. Great, therefore, was their delight
when their new king announced his intention of marrying a daughter of
their old line of kings—a descendant of the great Alfred, and they
cherished hopes that by this infusion of Saxon blood into the veins of
their future kings, the Saxon race would be elevated in position, and
that, being vastly more numerous, they would eventually, by marriages,
absorb the Norman few and England again become Saxon.
Matilda, Henry's Queen (born 1079, married 1100, died 1118), was the
daughter of Malcolm Canmore, King of Scotland, by Margaret, daughter
of Eadward, the ætheling, who was the son of Eadmund Ironside, the
lineal descendant of King Alfred. She was originally called Editha,
which name was changed, at the request of her godfather, Prince Robert,
brother of her future husband, who wished her to be named after his
mother. "Matildem quœ prius dicta Edithe," say Ordericus Vitalis. In
the year 1093, her father was slain before Alnwick Castle, and her
mother died of grief shortly after. Donald Bane usurped the throne of
his nephew, and Eadgar, the ætheling, removed his nephews and nieces to
England, not deeming them safe in Scotland. Matilda was educated in the
Nunneries of Romsey and Wilton, under her aunt, Christina, the Abbess.
She had two or three eligible offers of marriage, and it was with some
reluctance, and not until a council had determined that she was under
no religious vows, that she accepted the hand of the king.
She became very popular by influencing the king in the reformation of
abuses, the granting of charters of privileges, and making good laws.
Robert of Gloucester says—
"Many were the good laws that were made in England
Through Maud, the good Queen, as I understand."
Amongst other good deeds besides founding the Priory, she established a
hospital at St. Giles-in-the-Fields, built a bridge over the river Lea,
afterwards called the bridge of Stratford-le-Bow, which was so named
because it was the first "bowed" or arched bridge built in England,
and was generally called Maud's Bridge; made new roads, repaired old
ones, and was a benefactor to the Abbey of St. Alban's, in whose
"Golden Book," now in the British Museum, is her miniature, with an
inscription, "Queen Matilde's gave us Ballwick and Lilleburn."
William of Malmesbury thus sums up her character:—"She was singularly
holy ... a rival of her mother's piety; never committing any
impropriety. Clad in hair cloth, beneath her royal habit, in Lent, she
trod the thresholds of the churches, barefoot. Nor was she disgusted
at washing the feet of the diseased." She had issue a son, William,
drowned with his bride and a host of nobles in the "Blanche Nef," when
coming from Normandy, and a daughter, afterwards the Empress Matilda,
mother of King Henry Second.
The most splendid act of munificence on the part of the Queen was the
foundation of the magnificent Priory of the Holy Trinity, in the year
1108, which became in process of time the greatest and richest priory
in the City.
At this period, when the City was a forest of spires and towers, there
stood, on the north-east of Leadenhall Street, just within Aldgate,
four parish churches, those of St. Catherine, St. Michael, St. Mary
Magdalene, and the Blessed Trinity. The church of St. Michael is
supposed to have been one of the most ancient Christian temples in
England; at this time the earth had risen twenty feet above its level,
and it was only necessary to take down the tower to make way for the
priory. The body or crypt of this venerable relic of antiquity was
discovered a few years ago, and unhappily destroyed. The church erected
to the honour of Christ and St. Mary Magdalene was founded by Siredus,
charged with an annual payment of 30s. to the Dean and Chapter of
Waltham, which the Queen compounded for by giving them possession of a
mill. These four churches and parishes were cleared away for the site
of the priory, which was built on the ground occupied by that of St.
Michael. It was 300 feet in length facing Leadenhall Street, and was
bounded on the east by what is now the street of Houndsditch.
Just outside the gate was the church of St. Botolph the Briton, a
rectory of very ancient date, belonging to and standing on the land of
the Knighten Guild, which was given by the knights to the prior and
brethren, who rebuilt it and placed their arms over the door. It was
repaired 1661, escaped the fire, became ruinous, and was rebuilt 1741-4.
After the clearance of the land, the buildings rapidly rose, and,
when completed, were filled with Canons Regular of the order of St.
Augustine, with Norman as the Prior, and is said to have been the first
House of Canons Regular established in England.
For endowment, the Queen granted to the fraternity lands within the
walls, which, when they obtained the Soke outside the walls, was
called "the Inner Soken," the boundaries of which are described
in a book called _Dunthorne_, written by one of the brethren, as
extending from Aldgate to the Bailey of the Tower, to St. Olave's
Church, Coleman Church, and Fen Church, by the house of Theobald
Fitzloo, "the lane leading wherto is now stopped, because it had been
suspected of thieves," then by the Church of St. Michael to Lime
Street, and by the Church of St. Andrew as far as the Chapel of St.
Augustine-upon-the-Wall. She gave them also Aldgate and £25 per annum
from the city of Exeter.
Thus runs the deed of gift: "Maud, by the grace of God, Queen of
England, to R. Bishop of London, and all the faithful of the Holy
Church, greeting. Be it known to you that I, by the advice of
Archbishop Anselm, and with the assent and confirmation of my Lord King
Henry, have given and confirmed to the Church of Christ, seated near
the walls of London, free and discharged from all subjection, as well
to the Church of Waltham, and all other churches, except the church
of St Paul, London, and the bishops, with all things appertaining to
the same, for the honour of God, to the Canons regularly serving God
in the same with Norman the Prior, for ever, for the redemption of
souls, and of those of our parents. I have in like manner given them
the gate of Aldgate, with the Soc belonging to the same, which was my
lordship, and two-third parts of the revenue of the city of Exeter. And
it is my will and I command that the said Canons hold the lands and all
things belonging to the Church, well and peaceably and honourably and
freely, with all the liberties and customs which my Lord, King Henry,
by his charter confirmed to them, so that neither wrong nor injury be
done to them. Witness: William, Bishop of Winchester; Roger, Bishop of
Salisbury; Robert, Bishop of Lincoln."
Henry confirmed this deed, with further privileges of sac and soc,
thol and theam, ingfang theft and outfang theft, and all other their
customs, as were within as without.
The Inner Soke is identical with the present ward of Aldgate, but there
is no record to show that the priory was represented in the Court of
Aldermen for this ward, as they were afterwards for their Outer Soken.
Soon afterwards, in the year 1115, the Priory had a considerable
accession of landed property, by a grant of what now constitutes the
ward of Portsoken.
In the reign of King Eadgar, thirteen knights who had done service
to the realm, asked the king to bestow upon them a tract of land
lying desolate outside Aldgate, comprising what is now covered by the
Minories, Houndsditch, Petticoat Lane, etc., and Whitechapel to the
Bars. Eadgar consented on two conditions, that they should each be
victors in three combats, one under ground, one upon ground, and one
above ground, and that on a certain day they should tilt with lances
against all comers in East Smithfield. All this was accomplished by the
knights with great glory, and the king made them a grant of the land,
constituting them a guild under the name of the "Knighten Guild," the
land being named "Portsoken," signifying the "Franchise at the Gate."
Eadgar's charter of incorporation was confirmed by Eadward the
Confessor, William I., William II., and Henry I.
After the establishment of the priory, the knights of the guild, for
the glory of God and the Blessed Trinity, and out of a chivalrous
admiration of their pious Queen, gave to the prior and canons the whole
of their land, franchise, and liberties, and the church of St. Botolph
the Briton, and took upon themselves the habit of the order, becoming
members of the fraternity.
In attestation of their grant they placed their charters upon the altar
of the priory church, and gave Norman, the prior seisin of the land in
the church of St. Botolph, which stood upon the land; Barnard, Prior
of Dunstable; John, Prior of Derland; Geoffrey Clinton, Chamberlain of
London, and other clerks and laymen being witnesses thereof. King Henry
gave a confirmatory charter, as did, afterwards, Gilbert, William, and
Roger, Bishops of London, St. Alphage, Archbishop of Canterbury, and
Popes Alexander and Innocent, the latter adding that the Church of St.
Botolph should be served by one of the canons of the priory, removable
at the discretion of the prior.
In consequence of this acquisition, the prior was admitted as a Ward
Alderman of the City of London, the land, although lying beyond the
boundaries, being within the liberties of the City. He met in the
Council Chamber, took part in the deliberations, feasted in the hall,
and rode forth in pageants, clad in scarlet as other aldermen, but had
his robes cut in clerical fashion.