the score of historic and literary interest. This is the White Hart,
which was doubtless an old establishment at the date, 1406, of its
first mention in historical records. Forty-four years later, that is
in 1450, the inn gained its most notable association by being made
the head-quarters of Jack Cade at the time of his famous
insurrection. Modern research has shown that this rebellion was a
much more serious matter than the older historians were aware of,
but the most careful investigation into Cade's career has failed to
elicit any particulars of note prior to a year before the rising
took place. The year and place of his birth are unknown, but twelve
months before he appears in history he was obliged to flee the realm
and take refuge in France owing to his having murdered a woman who
was with child. He served for a time in the French army, then
returned under an assumed name and settled in Kent, which was the
centre of discontent against Henry VI. As the one hope of reform lay
in an appeal to arms, the discontent broke into open revolt. "The
rising spread from Kent over Surrey and Sussex. Everywhere it was
general and organized--a military levy of the yeomen of the three
shires." It was not of the people alone, for more than a hundred
esquires and gentlemen threw in their lot with the rebels; but how
it came about that Jack Cade attained the leadership is a profound
mystery. Leader, however, he was, and when he, with his twenty
thousand men, took possession of Southwark as the most desirable
base from which to threaten the city of London, he elected the White
Hart for his own quarters. This was on the first of July, 1450, and
for the next few of those midsummer days the inn was the scene of
many stirring and tragic events. Daily, Cade at the head of his
troops crossed the bridge into the city, and on one of those
excursions he caused the seizure and beheadal of the hated Lord Say.
Daily, too, there was constant coming and going at the White Hart of