mysteries and moralities which alone were performed in churches and convents.

The inns were built round three sides of a square, with galleries one above the other. On to these the guests at the inns stepped out from their own rooms to see what was going on in the court-yards below. There the jesters and jougleurs, the travelling minstrels, and actors, played their parts, while the spectators from above doubtless showered down upon them their benefactions in proportion to the pleasure they received.

The motif of the Canterbury pilgrims was a pilgrimage to the tomb of the favourite saint, St. Thomas of Canterbury, or Thomas à Becket.

Convenience, as well as the passionate admiration that the Southwark people had for the martyr, made the Tabard a recognized point for departure, and Chaucer, hearing of the proposed expedition, determined to be of the party, and arrived at the inn in time to take stock of his companions, and make notes for a description of them.

We can see him leaning over the balcony and watching the motley company arriving, and most distinctly precious" is his description of the pilgrims selected from the various walks of life

as they appeared in the times of the later Plantagenets. It was a short breathing time, the French wars were over for the present, and the troublous wars of the Roses had not yet begun. Mutterings of the approaching storm were heard, the Vox Clamantis had made itself felt, and perhaps one object of the pilgrimage to Canterbury was to persuade the saint to use his influence to quiet the discontent which was gathering.

Pilgrimages then took the place of summer and autumn excursions to the sea-side and abroad, and Chaucer's pilgrims took their way under the personal guidance of Harry Bailly, mine host of the Tabard.

It is an interesting fact, and shows us how Chaucer drew his pictures from real life, that Harry Bailly was a real personage; he was in very truth what he is represented to have been at that very time. He was not improbably," says Mr. Corner in his "Inns of Southwark,” “a descendant of Henry Fitz Martin, of the borough of Southwark, to whom King Henry III., by letters patent, dated 30th of September, in the 50th year of his reign, at the instance of William de la Zouch, granted the customs of the town of Southwark, during the King's pleasure, he paying

to the Exchequer the annual fee farm rent of £10 for the same. By that grant, Henry Fitz Martin

was constituted Bailiff of Southwark, and he would therefore acquire the name of Henry the Bailiff, or le Bailly."

Henry Bailly twice represented the borough of Southwark in Parliament, vide the Blue Book containing the names of the members in the 50th of Edward III., 1376, held at Westminster :

THOMAS CROYDON]

HENRICUS BAILLY

Southwark Borough.

and in 1378, 2nd year of Richard II., at

Gloucester :

WYLLIELMUS CHYLDERLEE

HENRICUS BAILLY

Southwark Borough.

Henry Bailly, M.P., being, without doubt, identical with Chaucer's host of the Tabard. His identity is further established by an extract from the Subsidy Roll of the 4th of Richard II., 1380, dorso :

ijs,"

"Henr' Bayliff, ostyler, Xtian, ux'-eius from which it appears that Henry Bayliff, hosteller, and Christian, his wife, were assessed