Inns andtaverns are two related forms of establishments or buildings where travellers can seek lodging and, usually, food and drink. They are typically located in the country or along a highway. Found in Europe, they possibly first sprang up when the Romans built their system of Roman roads two millennia ago. Some inns in Europe are several centuries old. In addition to providing for the needs of travellers, inns traditionally acted as community gathering places.
He had scarcely gone a short league, when Fortune, that was conducting his affairs from good to better, discovered to him the road, where he also espied an Inn. Sancho positively maintained it was an Inn, and his master that it was a castle; and the dispute lasted so long that they arrived there before it was determined.
You may go to Carlisle's and to Almanac's too; And I'll give you my Head if you find such a Host, For Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, Butter, or Toast; How he welcomes at once all the World and his Wife, And how civil to Folks he ne'er saw in his Life.
Christopher Anstey,New Bath Guide, Fourth Ed. (1767), p. 130. Phrase "the world and his wife" also found inJonathan Swift,Polite Conversation, Third Dialogue. Another version "All the world and Little Billing." A parish in Northamptonshire.
He who has not been at a tavern knows not what a paradise it is. O holy tavern! O miraculous tavern!—holy, because no carking cares are there, nor weariness, nor pain; and miraculous, because of the spits, which themselves turn round and round!
Pietro Aretino, quoted by Longfellow inHyperion, Book III, Chapter II.
Now musing o'er the changing scene Farmers behind the tavern screen Collect; with elbows idly press'd On hob, reclines the corner's guest, Reading the news to mark again The bankrupt lists or price of grain. Puffing the while his red-tipt pipe He dreams o'er troubles nearly ripe, Yet, winter's leisure to regale, Hopes better times, and sips his ale.
Alone the varying road of life, In calm content, in toil or strife, At morn or noon, by night or day, As time conducts him on his way, How oft doth man, by care oppressed, Find in an Inn a place of rest.
William Combe,Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, Canto IX, line 1.
Where'er his fancy bids him roam, In ev'ry Inn he finds a home— * * * * * Will not an Inn his cares beguile, Where on each face he sees a smile?
William Combe,Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, Canto IX, line 13.
