THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 69 



opening of the poem was the time that remarkable meeting- 

 took place. Some lover of precision, from particulars inci- 

 dentally mentioned by the poet of the heavenly bodies at the 

 time, computes the exact date was the 26th of April, 13^3, 

 though Prof. Skeat thinks five years later fits best into all the 

 known data. There were " well nine and twenty of the com- 

 " jjany," a fair representation of English social life, the very 

 highest and lowest excepted. In his prologue to the tales 

 Chaucer has inimitably sketched that gathering, leaving a 

 picture hard!}' to be equalled, and of increasing value the 

 longer the English language is read. After supper their host, 

 Harry Bailly, a man fit to " ban been a Marshal in an hall," 

 made everybody great cheer, and proposed further to them a 

 plan for making theirs a pleasant ride to Canterbury. His 

 plan was : each pilgrim on the way " Canterburyward " should 

 tell two tales, and homewards he should tell other two, of 

 " aventure that whilom han befalle," and on their return to the 

 Tabard the teller of the best tale should have supper at the 

 others' cost. If they agreed to this he, Harry Bailly, to keep 

 them merry would ride with them as their guide at his own 

 expense ; as marshall of the company he should tell no tale, 

 and whoso withsaid his judgment " shal i^aye al that wc 

 " spend en by the weye." 



The host's proposal was accepted on his own conditions ; 

 and the party in the morning, " when day gan for to spring," 

 rode forth at little more than a walk. Pilgrimages were 

 evidently leisurely made, as pilgrims from London usually 

 slept at Dartford, Rochester, and Ospringe, reaching Canter- 

 bury on the fourth day. By the " pilgrims' way," on which 

 portions of an old pilgrim's house, it is said, are still left, the 

 distance from London was fifty-six miles. How loi^g Chaucer's 

 memorable company was e7i rozite is not said. Harr}^ Bailly 

 marshalled the party as behooved his reputation. In all twenty- 

 four tales were told. One, the story of Alchemy, was told by 

 the Canon's yeman who joined the party on their way ; two 

 were in prose ; the Cook unfortunately was found to be in 

 unfit state to tell a story, and was stopi^ed at the beginning of 



