And gadrede us togirde, alle in a flok,
And forth we riden, a litel more than pas
Unto the watering of seint Thomas.


The "watering of St Thomas" was a spring dedicated to St Thomas, and
it came to be the first halting-place of the pilgrims. It is still
remembered in the name of St Thomas's Road close by, and not
inappropriately in the tavern which bears St Thomas's name. It was
here that the immortal tales were begun:

And there our host bigan his hors areste,
And seyde; Lordinges, herkneth, if yow leste.
Ye woot your forward, and it yow recorde
If even-song and morwe-song acorde,
Lat see now who shal telle the firste tale....


No memory of the pilgrims would seem to remain at all in the road
after St Thomas's watering until we come to Deptford. The "Knight's
Tale" and the "Miller's Tale" have filled, and one would think more
than filled that short three miles of road, till in the Reve's
Prologue the host began "to spake as loudly as a king...."

Sey forth thy tale and tarie nat the tyme,
Lo, Depeford! and it is half-way pryme.


Nothing more lugubrious is to be found to-day in the whole length of
the old road than Deptford; but it is there that we begin to be free