CHARLES H. WELCH
22
Coaches from Dover and the south could travel no further than the Borough as the Bridge was too narrow for
them to pass. Consequently the High Street was a street of Inns.
Geffrey Chaucer speaks of the Tabard Inn, in his Canterbury Tales:
`Befell that in that season, on a day
In Southwark at the Tabard, as I lay,
Readie to wenden on my pilgrimage
To Canterburie with devout courage,
At night was come into the hosterie
Well nine and twentie in a companie'.
The Tabard was so called by the sign, which was, as we now term it, a jacket, or sleeveless coat ... a stately garment
of old time, commonly worn by noblemen.