(Vol. ii., pp. 199. 237. 269. 316.)
I think those of your readers who are interested in this Query will feel
that the replies it has received are not quite satisfactory, and I
therefore trust you will find some room for the following remarks.
I would beg to ask, can there be any doubt that from Southwark to
Dartford, and from Rochester to their destination, Chaucer and his
fellow pilgrims journeyed along the old Roman way, then for many
centuries the great thoroughfare from London to the south-eastern
coast, and which for these portions of the route is nearly identical
with the present turnpike-road? The _Tales_ themselves make it certain
that the pilgrims started on this ancient way; for when the Host
interrupts the sermonising of the Reeve, he mentions Deptford and
Greenwich as being in their route:
"Say forth thy tale, and tarry not the time,
Lo Depeford, and it is half way prime;
Lo Greenewich, there many a shrew is in,
It were all time thy tale to begin."
Shortly after leaving Dartford the turnpike-road bends to the left,
reaching Rochester by Gravesend and Gadshill; whilst the Roman way,
parts of which are still used, was carried to that city by Southfleet,
and through Cobham Park; and it seems to me that the only question we
have to solve is, whether Chaucer followed the Roman way throughout, or
whether between Dartford and Rochester he took the course of what is now
the turnpike-road. For I cannot but think it very unlikely that, with a
celebrated road leading almost straight as a line to Canterbury, the
pilgrims should either go many miles out of their way to seek another,
as they must have done, or run the risk of losing themselves in a
"horse-track."
In attempting to determine this point, your readers will remember the
injunction of Poins:
"But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning by four o'clock early at
Gadshill; there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings,
and traders riding to London with fat purses."--_Henry IV._, Pt. I.
Act I. Sc. 2.
And Gadshill the robber tells his fellows:
"There's money of the king's coming down the hill; 'tis going to the
king's exchequer."--Act II. Sc. 2.
Here we learn, not only that in Shakspeare's time the road between
London and Canterbury was by Gadshill, but also that the tradition was
that the pilgrims had been accustomed to travel that road. We cannot, I
think, be far out of the way in concluding this to have been the road
that Chaucer selected, and thus have the satisfaction of connecting with
it in an immediate and especial manner the two greatest names in our
literature; for, if he meant the only other road that seems at all
likely, he would, near Cobham, pass within two miles of this famed hill.
Nor can there be much doubt that so loyal a company, following a pious
custom, would tarry at Rochester, to make their offerings on the shrine
of St. William; if so, among the many thousands who have trodden the
steps, now well-nigh worn away, leading to its site, is there one
individual whose presence here we can recall with more pleasure than
that of the father of English poetry?
It is evident that the road mentioned by S. H. (Vol. ii., p. 237.) is
not Chaucer's road; but I can well understand why it should be called
the "Pilgrims' Road;" nor should I be surprised to learn that other
roads in Kent are known by the same name, for Chaucer tells us in the
"Prologue" to the _Tales_ that
"From every shire's end
Of Engle-land to Canterbury they wend:"
and I need scarcely say that these widely scattered pilgrims would not
all traverse the country by one and the same road, but that they would
select various routes, according to the different localities from which
they came. Hence, several roads might be called "Pilgrims' Roads."
From a paper which appeared in the _Athenæum_ in 1842, and has since
been reprinted in a separate form, the writer of which I take to be
identical with the reviewer of Buckler's work referred to by MR.
JACKSON, I think we may gather that what he speaks of as the "Old
Pilgrims' Road" is the Otford Road noticed by S. H. and M. (2.) Messrs.
Buckler's tract mentions no wayside chapels in Kent.
It may not be uninteresting to add, that the author of _Cabinet Pictures
of English Life--Chaucer_ has expressed his firm belief, the grounds for
which must be sought in his work, that the "Pilgrims' Room" of the
Tabard, now the Talbot, in Southwark, whence these memorable pilgrims
set forth, must be at least as old as Chaucer, and that the very gallery
exists along which Chaucer and the pilgrims walked.