The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-09

CHAUcER's TABARD INN.-Hard by st. Sa-
viour's, in Borough High street. less than five
minutes walk from London Bridge, there
may yet be seen some poor remains of what
once was the Tabard Inn. You turn from
the street into one of those court-yard5
which in the east of London are so frequent,
and find at once that the very name has felt
the influence of time. Following in the wake
of 'Ihe Goat and Compasses' which once
was 'God Encompass us"-the "Tabard" has
undergone phonetic decay, and is now known
as the talbot" The claims of history are.
however, recognized by an inscription which
hangs over the doorway of the talbot" an
nouncing the house to be, in spite of its
name, the "Ancient Tabard Inn" The whole
yard is redolent of dilapidation. Facing
one, on entering, there is an interesting
block of old buildings, forming part of the
left side and bottom of what once was an
ample courtyard. This part of the build
ings contains not improbably the shell of the
corresponding portion of the original inn.
The doors Of the first floor all open into one
of the wide balustraded galleries or veran-
dahs SO common in the genuine old English
hostelry. The rooms that surround this balus-
traded gallery are at any rate on the site of the
very rooms tenanted by the twenty-nine Can
te1bury Pilgrims on the eve of their immortal
pilgrimage; one of them still bears the spe-
cial name of "Chaucers Room;" and the
gallery, as far as mere look goes, differs, pro-
badly, but very little from that scene of the
Hosts anxious labors when in the morning
he acted as ''Chanticleere, and went round
to rouse each pilgrim from his bed. Quite
recent residents can recollect when the coigu
of the old balustraded gallery was connected
with the modern brick mass on the right by
an ancient wood work bridge, coeval at least
with the oldest portion of the building as it
stands. But the bridge is gone; and, unless
some rescuing hand is forthcoming, the rest
of the building will soon follow. Yet from
that courtyard actually rode forth the COM
pany that lives and moves forever in
Chaucer's poetry, or, at any rate, many a
company of which the Canterbury Tales"
present q life-lke copy. In that room
lay the seemly Prioress and her
nuns; here the Knight, with the ''yong Squier"
sharing his chamber and waiting dutifully
upon his needs; that staircase the burly Mobk
made re echo and quake with his heavy tread
and here, leaning upon the balustrade-work
the Friar and the Sompnour (SUmmoner or
Attorney had many sharp passage of arms.
The house which was Chaucer's home during
the brief two years of sunshine that closed
his life stands no longer. But that at least,
needs no monument to preserve its memory
IT was rented of the Abbot and Monks of
Westminster; and Henry Wis Chapel now
stands on its site. There, during the sum-
mer OF 400, he peacefully met his end, and
was taken from what then was the outer sha-
dow of the Abbey to repose forever within
its walls But the ''Tabard Inn" is Chaucers
house in a wider sense than any which he
for a season inhabited, either at Woodstock,
bennington, or close to Westminster Abbey;
and the Tabard Inn is not, as it now stands,
a thing creditable to a country that adds to
a great history the glory of a supreme lite.
rature. Tile EchO.