excellence of its table or liquors. Each one of these ancient hostelries
might also be aptly described as

"A kind of old Hobgoblin Hall,
Now somewhat fallen to decay,
With weather-stains upon the wall,
And creaking and uneven floors,
And chimneys huge, and tiled and tall."

Wherever a stage line was established, a good country tavern, every few
miles along the route, became a necessity. It nourished on the patronage
that the coach brought to its door; its kitchen and barns afforded a
ready market for the produce of the farmers, and it was a grand centre
for news and the idlers of the village.

The Norfolk and Bristol Turnpike was fortunate in its taverns, which
were accounted among the best in the State, from the White Horse, whence
every stage-coach took its departure, to the last one met with on the
very borders of the land of Roger Williams. There was the Billings
Tavern in Roxbury, where it was considered quite the proper thing for
outward-bound passengers to alight and get something to fortify them
against the fatigues of the journey, especially if the weather were
extremely cold or extremely warm.

The next tavern on the line was widely known as Bride's, and later as
Gay's, in Dedham, a place where all who took the early coach out of the
city delighted to stop and breakfast. Here was to be found one of the
best tables on the line, and tradition has it that Bill Hodges, who, by
the way, must have been a competent judge, pronounced Bride's old
Medford rum the finest he had ever tasted. In the palmy days of