from London to the south-eastern coast, and which 

 for these portions of the route is nearly identical 

 with the present turnpike-road? The Tales 

 themselves make it certain that the pilgrims 

 started on this ancient way ; for when the Host 

 interrupts the sermonising of the Reeve, he men- 

 tions Deptford and Gi'eenwich as being in their 

 route : 



" Say forth thy tale, and tarry not the time, 

 I>o Dcpel'ord, and it is halfway prime; 

 Lo Greenewich, there many a shrew is in, 

 ]t were all time thy tale to begin." 



Shortly after leaving Dartford the turnpike- 

 road bends to the left, reaching Kochester by 

 Gravesend and Gadshill ; whilst the Koman way, 

 parts of which are still used, was carried to that 

 city by Southtleet, and through Cobham Park ; 

 and it seems to me that the only question we have 

 to solve is, whether Chaucer followed the Roman 

 way throughout, or whether between Dartford 

 and Rochester he took the course of what is now 

 the turnpike-road. For I cannot but think it very 

 unlikely that, with a celebrated road leading al- 

 most straight as a line to Canterbury, the pilgrims 

 should either go many miles out of their way to 

 seek another, as they must have done, or run the 

 risk of losing themselves in a " horse-track." 



In attempting to determine this point, your 

 readers will remember the injunction of Roins : 



" But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning by four 

 o'clock early at Gadshill ; there are pilgiims going to 

 Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to 

 London with fat purses." — Henry IV., Pt. I. Act I. 

 So. 2. 



And Gadshill the robber tells his fellows : 



" There's money of the king's coming down the hill; 

 'lis going to the king's exchequer." — Act II. Sc. 2. 



Here wo learn, not only that in Shakspeare's time 

 the road between London and Canterbury was by 

 Gadshill, but also that the tradition was that the 

 pilojrims had been accustomed to travel that road. 

 We cannot, I think, be far out of the way in con- 

 cluding this to have been the road that Chaucer 

 selected, and thus have the satisfaction of con- 

 necting with it in an immediate and especial 

 manner the two greatest names in our literature ; 

 for, if he meant the only other road that seems at 

 all likely, he would, near Cobham, pass within two 

 miles of this famed hill. Nor can there be much 

 doubt that so loyal a company, following a pious 

 custom, would tarry at Rochester, to make their 

 offerings on the shrine of St. William ; if so, 

 among the many thousands who have trodden the 

 steps, now well-nigh worn away, leading to its 

 site, is there one individual whose presence here 

 we can recall with more pleasure than that of the 

 father of English poetry? 



It is evident that the road mentioned by S. H. 

 (Vol. ii., p. 237.) is not Chaucer's road ; but I can 

 well understand why it should be called the " Pil- 



grims' Road ; " nor should I be surprised to learn 

 that other roads in Kent are known by the same 

 name, for Chaucer tells us in the "Prologue" to 

 the Tales that 



" From every shire's end 

 Of Engle-land to Canterbury they wend:" 

 and I need scarcely say that these widely scat- 

 tered pilgrims would not all traverse the country 

 by one and the same road, but that they would 

 select various routes, according to the different 

 localities from which they came. Hence, several 

 roads might be called " Pilgrims' Roads." 



From a paper which appeared in the Athenaum 

 in 1842, and has since been reprinted in a separate 

 form, the writer of which I take to be identical 

 with the reviewer of Buckler's work referred to 

 by Mr. Jackson, I think we may gather that 

 what he speaks of as the " Old Piltrrims' Road" is 

 the Otford Road noticed by S. H. and M. (2.) 

 Messrs. Buckler's tract mentions no wayside 

 chapels in Kent. 



It may not be uninteresting to add, that the au- 

 thor of Cabinet Pictures of English Life — Chaucer 

 has expressed his firm belief, the grounds for which 

 must be sought in his work, that the " Pilgrims' 

 Room" of the Tabard, now the Talbot, in South- 

 wark, whence these memorable pilgrims set forth, 

 must be at least as old as Chaucer, and that the 

 very gallery exists along which Chaucer and the 

 pilgrims walked. Aeun. 



ixcplic^ ta iHtiior caurricS. 



Shakspeare's Use of " Captious" (Vol. ii., p. 354. ; 

 Vol. iii., p. 229.). — As W. F. S. does me the 

 favour to ask my opinion of his notion respecting 

 the passage in All's Well that Ends Well, I beg to 

 say that I am very glad to find he agrees with me 

 in regard to the signification of the word " cap- 

 tious;" but that I cannot suppose, with him, that 

 Shakspeare wrote capatious in a passage in which 

 the metre is regular; for what sort of verse would 

 be — 



" Yet in this capatious and intenible sieve? " 



Surely W. F. S. has too good an ear to allow hiui 

 to fix such a line in Shakspeare's text. J. S. W. 



Stockwell, April 3. 1851. 



Inscription on a Clock (Vol. iil., p. 329.). — 

 The words written under the curious clock in 

 Exeter Cathedral, about which your correspondent 

 M. J. W. Hewett inquires, and which are, or 

 were, also to be found under the clock over the 

 Terrace in the Inner Temple, London, are, in 

 truth, a quotation from Martiid ; and it is singular 

 that a sentiment so trtdy Christian should have 

 escaped from the pen of a Pagan writer : 



" They" fthat is, the moments as they pass) " slip 

 by us unheeded, but are noted in the account against 

 us. " 



What could Chrysostom or Augustine have said 



