1676. From the old foundations, however, a new Tabard arose, built
on the old plan, so that the structure which was torn down in 1875
may have perpetuated the semblance of Chaucer's inn to modern times.

Compared with its association with the Canterbury pilgrims, the
subsequent history of the Tabard is somewhat prosaic. Here a record
tells how it became the objective of numerous carriers from Kent and
Sussex, there crops up a law report which enshrines the memory of a
burglary, and elsewhere in reminiscences or diary may be found a
tribute to the excellence of the inn's rooms and food and the
reasonableness of the charges. It should not be forgotten, however,
that violent hands have been laid on the famous inn for the lofty
purposes of melodrama. More than sixty years ago a play entitled
"Mary White, or the Murder at the Old Tabard" thrilled the
theatregoer with its tragic situations and the terrible perils of
the heroine. But the tribulations of Mary White have left no imprint
on English literature. Chaucer's pilgrims have, and so long as the
mere name of the Tabard survives, its recollection will bring in its
train a moving picture of that merry and motley company which set
out for the shrine of À Becket so many generations ago.

Poetic license bestows upon another notable Southwark inn, the Bear
at Bridge-foot, an antiquity far eclipsing that of the Tabard. In a
poem printed in 1691, descriptive of "The Last Search after Claret
in Southwark," the heroes of the verse are depicted as eventually
finding their way to

"The Bear, which we soon understood
Was the first house in Southwark built after the flood."