Who would have dreamed of travelling from the Tabard in Southwark to the last new singer, viâ Exeter-hall and the lilies of the valley, and touching en passant on to cardinal virtues and an Irish Viscount?

The host of the inn at that time was Harry Bailey, member of Parliament for Southwark in 1376 and 1379.

They reached Southwark after two hours' hard riding.

"I had not been in London a week, before I succeeded in procuring a situation in a very respectable house on the Surrey side of the Thames; and being nearer to Southwark than any other Wesleyan Chapel, I decided on making that my place of worship.

Bread Street would resound to us with the tread of young Milton, and Southwark with the echoes of Shakespeare's voice and the jolly laughter of the Pilgrims at the Tabard.

But to come into Southwark on a Spring morning in search of Chaucer and the Tabard Inn is to ask of London more than she will give you.

An enlightened civic spirit is shown in the Statute of 1433, which prohibits any person dwelling at the Stews in Southwark from serving on juries in Surrey, whereby "many Murderers and notorious Thieves have been saved, great Murders and Robberies concealed and not punished."