About the year 1148, St. Bartholomew’s, Smithfield, was the resort of sick pilgrims, of whom “many and innumerable were schewid tokynnys of myracles.” The patients who flocked to the famous shrine and hospital were “langwissyng men greuyd with uariant sorys”; one sought “remedie of his akynge hede,” another suffered from “bleriednes of yen” (eyes), and yet another from “ryngyng of his erys.” Victims of the falling sickness p004 (epilepsy), paralysis, dropsy, fevers, insanity, found relief; deaf and dumb were healed; a child born blind received sight from “the heuenly leche.”
Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, about 1141, invited help for “the hospital house of Dover, which two brethren, Osbern and Godwin, are diligently building for the reception of the poor and strangers.” This hospital of St. Bartholomew (Buckland) was also used for lepers. The need of further provision for travellers was felt, and a benefactor made extensive grants on condition that a house was provided for the reception of needy people disembarking from ships: before 1163 reference is made to the hospitium for strangers. It was doubtless frequented by voyagers returning from the Crusades; but before long an event occurred which brought multitudes to Dover, and then the old hospital proving insufficient, became chiefly the resort of lepers, and a new Maison Dieu was built near the quay. (See Frontispiece.)
SECOND PERIOD (circa 1170–1270)
The year 1170 marks an epoch, ushering in the great pilgrimage within and towards England. When the shrine of St. Thomas of Canterbury became the goal of pious wayfarers it was necessary to find accommodation for them. The hospitals of Canterbury and Southwark bearing the martyr’s name were among the earliest. Within a few years such houses (often called Domus Dei) were founded in most of the southern ports and along the Pilgrims’ Way, as at Dover, Ospringe, and Maidstone. At Strood “the poor, weak, infirm and impotent, as well neighbouring inhabitants as travellers from distant p005 places,” were cared for “until they die or depart healed.” Norfolk, like Kent, was studded with houses of charity, especially near the highway to Walsingham. Thirteen pilgrims were lodged at Bec, near Billingford. At Thetford there was a hospital near the passage of the river. Among other early hostels we may enumerate those of Newcastle, Hexham, Ripon, Stamford, Aynho, London (St. Mary’s), Bridgwater, and Ledbury.
[♦] PLATE I. REFRESHMENT FOR WAYFARERS
The hospital was a guest-house and infirmary in one. That on the outskirts of Oxford was called in a charter (circa 1194) Herebergeria Hospitalis S. Joh. Bapt.; in 1233 this was refounded (Fig. 1) “that therein infirm people and strangers might receive remedy of their health and necessity.” The inmates of St. Nicholas’, Salisbury, are described as passengers (transeuntes) and as sick and infirm (egroti et infirmi). The same two-fold work of charity was carried on at Chichester, as shown by St. Mary’s statutes:—
“If anyone in infirm health and destitute of friends should seek admission for a term, until he shall recover, let him be gladly received and assigned a bed. . . . In regard to the poor people who are received late at night, and go forth early in the morning, let the warden take care that their feet are washed, and, as far as possible, their necessities attended to.”
There is a MS. in the British Museum entitled The Pilgrim. It is an allegorical poem in the manner of the “Pilgrim’s Progress,” and sets forth the adventures of the traveller. The illustration (Pl. I) and description were probably taken from experience of earthly pilgrimage. “Charity” is seen welcoming strangers, p006 at which work she was always busy in mediæval England:—
“And I suppose for my beste
There to herborewe and to reste
On ther cam and preyed me
And her name was Charite
To pylgrymes in goodly wyse
Sche dyde moste trewely the seruyse
With chere benygne and glad uysage
She brought hem to ther herbergage.”[5]