Pub London's pubs had closed. The closures have been ascribed to factors such as changing tastes, rise in the cost of beer due to applied taxes and the increase in the Muslim population. Inns and taverns feature throughout English literature and poetry, from The Tabard Inn in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" onwards. The highwayman Dick Turpin used the Swan Inn at Woughton-on-the-Green in Buckinghamshire as his base. Jamaica Inn near Bolventor in Cornwall gave its name to a 1936 novel by Daphne du Maurier and a 1939 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In the 1920s John Fothergill (1876–1957) was the innkeeper of
Jamaica Inn (1983 TV series) night. Her uncle threatens one of his consorts, who may later have been killed based on a conversation Mary overhears between her uncle and someone who may be the leader of the criminal gang. When a wagon transporting prisoners scheduled for execution suffers a breakdown near the inn, a young man helps the prisoners escape. Mary notices this but conceals it from the guards. He eventually turns out to be Jem, Joss’ younger brother, a horse thief. Later, when she takes a walk over the moor, Mary encounters the vicar of Altarnun, the reverend Francis Davey, who escorts her back