In older English, hedge- could be added to a word to imply that something was inferior, obscure, makeshift, or of doubtful respectability. A hedge-tavern was therefore not simply a tavern near a hedge, but a mean, out-of-the-way alehouse associated with poverty, crime, prostitution, and other socially disreputable activities. In poetry, the term can quickly establish a grim urban setting and a character’s vulnerable or degraded circumstances.

The word hedge in this compound is figurative: it means low-grade, obscure, or dubious, rather than literally located beside a hedge. Similar older expressions include hedge-priest, meaning an unlicensed or disreputable clergyman, and hedge-school, a small informal school, especially in Irish history. A hedge-tavern overlaps in meaning with terms such as low alehouse, gin-shop, or dive, though these terms come from different periods and social contexts. Do not interpret the phrase too literally as a pleasant rural inn. In Swift’s poem, it carries strongly negative associations of urban poverty, exploitation, and social danger.