Let us glance at a few of the great Southwark inns. The old "Tabard,"
from which Chaucer's pilgrims started on their memorable journey, was
destroyed by a great fire in 1676, rebuilt in the old fashion, and
continued until 1875, when it had to make way for a modern "old
Tabard" and some hop merchant's offices. This and many other inns had
galleries running round the yard, or at one end of it, and this yard
was a busy place, frequented not only by travellers in coach or
saddle, but by poor players and mountebanks, who set up their stage
for the entertainment of spectators who hung over the galleries or
from their rooms watched the performance. The model of an inn-yard was
the first germ of theatrical architecture. The "White Hart" in
Southwark retained its galleries on the north and east side of its
yard until 1889, though a modern tavern replaced the south and main
portion of the building in 1865-6. This was a noted inn, bearing as
its sign a badge of Richard II, derived from his mother Joan of Kent.
Jack Cade stayed there while he was trying to capture London, and
another "immortal" flits across the stage, Master Sam Weller, of
_Pickwick_ fame. A galleried inn still remains at Southwark, a great
coaching and carriers' hostel, the "George." It is but a fragment of
its former greatness, and the present building was erected soon after
the fire in 1676, and still retains its picturesqueness.

The glory has passed from most of these London inns. Formerly their
yards resounded with the strains of the merry post-horn, and carriers'
carts were as plentiful as omnibuses now are. In the fine yard of the
"Saracen's Head," Aldgate, you can picture the busy scene, though the
building has ceased to be an inn, and if you wished to travel to
Norwich there you would have found your coach ready for you. The old
"Bell Savage," which derives its name from one Savage who kept the
"Bell on the Hoop," and not from any beautiful girl "La Belle