Bars (Drinking establishments) -- England; England -- Social life and customs; Hotels -- England; Taverns (Inns) -- England
When night fell these wayfarers would tax all available resources for
their shelter and sustenance. At the manor-house they were very unwelcome;
the lord had good cause to detest the idea of poor people going on
pilgrimage. The monastery could only receive a small proportion. Many
needed nursing as well as rest. And so a special form of
lodging-house--half inn, half charitable institution had to be devised.
The great Hospice at Jerusalem, which provided for fully a thousand
visitors at one time, was regarded as the model, but the idea is much
older. At Cebrero, in Northern Spain, there is a _Hospicio Real_, founded
in 836 by King Alphonso II, for pilgrims crossing the pass of Piedrafita
on the way from Segovia to St. James of Compostella. St. John’s Hospital
at Winchester claims to have been originally founded by St. Brinstan about
the year 930 for sick and poor pilgrims to St. Swithin.
For the Canterbury pilgrims there were many of these hospices. That at
Rochester, a private benefaction, we have already mentioned. The _George
Inn_, which still can show a fine Early English crypt, may also be
described as a pilgrims’ inn, though, perhaps, like that at St. Albans,
for the better class of people. There was a pilgrims’ resting house at
Bapchild, near Sittingbourne. Ospringe, near Faversham, takes its name not
from the spring which used to babble so pleasantly along the water lane,
but from the great hospice founded by Henry III. By a similar “derangement
of epitaphs” the hospice at Colnbrook has developed into the _Ostrich
Inn_. A considerable portion of the hospice at Ospringe survives to this
day in half-timbered buildings around the _Crown Inn_, and the chapel is
said to form the foundations of the _Ship Inn_ on the opposite side of the
road. It is more likely that this inn stands on the site of the separate
establishment provided for lepers. This hospice must have been of great
extent and provided accommodation for rich and poor alike. A master and
three regular brethren of the Order of the Holy Cross were to superintend
the work of hospitality and nursing. Owing to an outbreak of the plague in
the reign of Edward IV the brethren forsook the place in a panic and died
without taking care to choose their successors. The property escheated to
the Crown; hence the presence of the _Crown Inn_.
Canterbury abounded in hospices of various kinds, some specially reserved
for the poorer clergy. The fourteenth century façade and vaulted lower
storey of one of these still survives in the High Street. Originally
established by St. Thomas himself, it was rebuilt by Archbishop Stratford,
whose regulations provided that every pilgrim in health should have one
night’s lodging to the cost of fourpence (about five shillings in modern
money); the weak and infirm were to be preferred to the hale, and women
upwards of forty years were to attend to the bedding and administer
medicaments to the sick.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account