the same destination, who had gathered together as they came along the road:—
Wel nyne and twenty in a companye,
Of sondry folk, by a venture ifalle
In felaschipe.—Csnt. Tales, 1. 23.
Chaucer obtains the consent of the rest to his joining their fellowship, which, as he describes it, consisted of persons most dissimilar in class and character. The host of the Tabard joins the party also, and it is agreed that, to enliven the journey, each, in his turn, shall tell a story on the way. They then sup at a common table, drink wine, and go to bed; and at daybreak they part on their journey. They travelled evidently at a slow pace; and at Boughton-under-Blee — a village a few miles from Canterbury — a canon and his yeoman, after some hard riding, overtake them, and obtain permission to join the company. It would seem that the company had palled a night somewhere on the road, probably at Rochester, — and we should, perhaps, have had an account of their reception and departure, had the collection of the " Canterbury Tales" been completed by their author, — and that the canon lent his yeoman to watch for any company of travellers who should halt at the hostelry, that he might join them, but he had been too late to start with them, and had, therefore, ridden hard to overtake them : —
And feid, "Sires, now in the morwe tyde
Out of your ostelry I saugh you ryde.
And warned heer my lord and soverayn.
Which that to ryden ivith yoiv is ful fayn.
For his disport; he loveth daliance." — Cant. Tales, 1. 12, 515.
A little further on, on the road, the Pardoner is called upon to tell his tale. He replies —
But first, quod he, "here, at this ale-stake,
I will both drynke and byten on a cake."—Ibid., 1. 13,735.
The road-side ale-house, where drink was sold to travellers, and to the country-people of the neighbourhood, was scattered over the morepopulous
