Innkeeper

“ The terrified innkeeper startled at the sound, and more than ever convinced that man’s enemy was on earth, took to his heels, nor ceased running till he reached his own door, and met his better angel of a wife, who boxed his ears for his absence, and vowed he had been gallanting. ”

“ They were strange and fierce, remote like the desert, whence they had come; and he was afraid of them like the innkeeper, but began to pity them when he heard that they had not tasted food for a fortnight, only a little camel's milk. They're waiting for me to give them the rinsings, the innkeeper said, if any should remain at the bottom of the barrel: you see, all water has to be brought to the inn in an ox-cart. There's no well on the hills and we sell water to those who can afford to pay for it. Then let the man drink his fill, Joseph answered, and his wife too. ”

“ It attaches only to the special goods brought by the guest to the inn, and housed by the innkeeper with him. When several guests go together, the lien extends to all their goods. The innkeeper is only bound to take ordinary care of goods thus held, but he cannot use them or charge for their house-room. By the custom of London and Exeter, “when a horse eats out the price of his head,” namely, when the cost of keep exceeds value, the host may have him as his own. ”

“ To all which the Abbe subjoined, that this worthy and amiable child had brought his indigent father a purse of money, to obviate his present necessities, and to prevent future anxieties.
Scarce had the uncle mentioned this superlative instance of filial goodness, before the innkeeper dropped to the ground, writhed with frightful convulsions, while the ecclesiastic looked with inconceivable surprize upon the servants, who stood speechless round their seemingly dying master. ”

“ The innkeeper told him, that the Officer was well, and had set out early in the morning on his return to the army. It is impossible, rejoined the Abbe with a smile. That very Officer will most assuredly dine with you to day, and give you such a history of your son, as must be productive to yon of a degree of joy, very little inferior to rapture. The landlord was astonished at these mysterious words, and asked his brother, if he was formerly acquainted with the gentleman. To which the minister made answer in the affirmative. Who is he? said the innkeeper with great emotion. ”

“ Under the Army Act soldiers of all kinds may be billeted on the innkeeper, even beyond his power to provide in his own house; he must find accommodation for them elsewhere. An innkeeper must keep the goods and chattels of his guest in safety, unless they are destroyed by the act of God or the king’s enemies. Under this last the king’s rebellious subjects are not included. He is not liable for goods stolen or destroyed by the companion of the guest or through the guest’s own negligence. ”

“ Beyond this, in a wooded hollow at the cross-roads respectively to Chipping Sodbury and Chippenham, you come past the wholly deserted “Plough” inn to the half-deserted, rambling old coaching-and posting-inn of “Cross Hands,” where a mysterious sign, unexplainable by the innkeeper, hangs out, exhibiting two hands crossed, with squabby spatulate fingers, and the inscription “Caius Marius Imperator B.C. 102 Concordia Militum.” What it all means apparently passes the wit of man, or at any rate of local man, to discover. ”

“ Then, sir, our great Chancellor Kent lays it down as admitting of no peradventure, that an innkeeper is bound absolutely to keep safe the property of his guest within the inn, whether he knows of it or not, and that his responsibility extends to all his guest’s servants, and to all the goods, chattels, and moneys of the guest, their safe custody being part of the contract to feed and lodge for a suitable reward. ”

“ The tiniest inn is always big enough for personality. The innkeeper is a person, the guest is a person, the cook, the boots, the hostler, they are all real persons. There is time for flavoring food with conversation. The chairs are friendly and inviting. The hearth leaps warm with welcome. But note well, one sometimes lives at a hotel, one often lives at a boarding-house, but one never lives at an inn, one merely stops. The reason why the welcome and the speeding of an inn can be so warm and genuine is that host and guest never have too much of each other. ”

“ While on the subject of innkeepers there is an example of the consummate impudence of Terrae Filius which is most worthy of note. He compared the Rev. Dr Newton, Principal of Hart Hall, to an innkeeper, in a letter upon Dr Newton’s book entitled “University Education.”
“Some persons it seems,” wrote Amhurst, “have entertained a notion, that your hall is no more than an inn, of which you are the host, and your scholars the guests. ”

“ The main ideas tested. How did the little girl in “Stardollars” pass the night? Where do travelers usually stay at night?
Explain inn, Innkeeper.
Narration.
AT THE INN.
Late in the evening they came to an inn; and because the duck was tired and the night dark, they drove up to the door.
The cock asked the innkeeper if they might stay over night. The innkeeper did not like their looks and said at [87] first, “No, I have no room, and I think you have no money.” But the cock replied, “You shall have the egg that the hen has laid and the one the duck lays every day.” So the innkeeper consented. ”

“ But what he heard was the innkeeper softly ordering them back, and at that moment there sounded outside in the night a man's voice calling.
Once more Rob lay upon the floor and peered below. Around the fire the men were sitting as before. In the doorway the innkeeper was standing with the firelight upon his back. Outside there was the humid noise of a horse losing its hold in sopping ground, and again a voice called—
"Can you give me shelter?"
With a backward glance the innkeeper disappeared, leaving those crouching figures utterly silent. To Rob a wild flash of hope flamed suddenly. ”

“ In the glooming coffee room of the inn he found the students, the dragoman, the groom and the innkeeper armed with a motley collection of weapons which ranged from the rifle of the innkeeper to the table leg in the hands of PeterTounley. The last named young student of archeology was in a position of temporary leadefship and holding a great pow-bow with the innkeeper through the medium of peircing outcries by the dragoman. ”

“ A man of education, he could adapt himself to his company and be skilful in devices for their comfort and recreation. Not least of his many qualifications as a landlord was his presence of mind in averting disputes by a judicious change of the subject.
We no longer send innkeepers to Parliament, nor do members of Parliament, as a rule, undertake the personal superintendence of [Pg 257] hotels, as they often did in the fourteenth century. But the type of innkeeper portrayed as Harry Bailey of the Tabard, in Southwark, is by no means extinct. ”

“ Contra, if goods left there by a man, because the innkeeper hath no advantage by them.' York v. Grenaugh, 2 Ld. R. 868.
'So where one leaves his horse at an inn, to stand there by agreement at livery, although neither himself nor any of his servants lodge there, he is requted a guest for that purpose, and the innkeeper hath a valuable consideration, and if that horse be stolen, he hath an action upon the common custom of the realm. ”

“ Law Relating to Innkeepers.—Whether any special building is an inn is a question of fact. A temperance hotel is an inn, but a mere public-house is not. An innkeeper is bound to receive, lodge and feed travellers if he has accommodation, if they are able and willing to pay, and are not obviously objectionable. If he refuse he is liable at common law to indictment, or an action will lie against him at the suit of the would-be guest. ”

“ And when another innkeeper agreed with the owner of a horse to entertain the man in charge one day in every week, or oftener if he should chance to stop at the inn with the horse, furnish the latter with provender and allow it to be kept in a particular stall: no one but the man in charge took care of the horse ”

“ Wherever the contents of a large country house was offered for sale, the innkeeper as a man of some substance would buy, and it is this fact which explains in some cases the finds of really valuable furniture which have been made at old inns. ”

“ The inn which we were leaving for Chong Wei was also the inn from which the carts make their departure for Yarkand, so we arranged with the innkeeper that he was to keep Shukr Ali until a caravan should be starting, leaving him a sum of money for board and lodging, Ridley, moreover, very kindly promising to see that the innkeeper did not defraud him or delay his departure. ”

“ Innkeeper.—An innkeeper's house is a public place to which travelers may resort. He cannot therefore prohibit persons who come under that character in a proper manner and at suitable times from entering, so long as he can accommodate them. He is not obliged to receive one who cannot pay for his entertainment. Indeed, he must exclude some persons who apply, notably thieves. He can refuse to admit all whom he has reason to believe will disturb the peace and safety of his guests ”

“ Short’s sanctimonious morality and his devices to detain customers in a hurry, so that they are compelled to stay in the inn for dinner, are a valuable humorous element of this play.
Fielding’s innkeepers are all exquisitely drawn, with the lifelike touches of a fine student of human nature in its infinite variety. We love best of all the host of that inn where Parson Adams met the braggart, untruthful squire who offered him a fine living and endless other benefits without the slightest intention of fulfilling his promises. ”

“ If the freight is paid by the salesman, the carrier becomes liable as an insurer.
INNKEEPERS
275. Innkeeper Defined. An innkeeper is a person who keeps a public house for the entertainment, for compensation, of all fit persons who desire to become guests and who are willing to pay the regular price. An innkeeper furnishes both food and lodging to guests. Persons who furnish one or the other, only, are not innkeepers. Innkeepers are classed as exceptional bailees. They are liable as insurers of their guests' baggage entrusted to their care. A boarding-house keeper is not an innkeeper. ”

“ John Trentedeus of Southwark was summoned to answer William Latymer touching a plea why, whereas according to the law and custom of the realm of England, innkeepers who keep a common inn are bound to keep safely by day and by night without reduction or loss men who are passing through the parts where such inns are and lodging their goods within those inns, so that, by default of the innkeepers or their servants, no damage should in any way happen to such their guests ... ”

“ The innkeeper, who was also a peasant-farmer, possessed the doubtful blessing of a mind that rose above what the logic of his existence, sternly bound to a plot of grudging soil and the petty needs of still poorer neighbours, demanded of it. ”

“ The innkeeper has to be taught, and he soon learns, the lesson of unlimited credit; he must be taught to welcome as a favoured guest a young gentleman in a very greasy coat, and with little baggage beyond a box of colours and a canvas ”

“ By-and-by they came to an inn, which was a farm as [Pg 205] well, and looked very peaceful and comfortable, with its neat toy barns and outhouses among the trees and fields, and the toy animals feeding all about them. They stopped for a minute or two to ask questions of the innkeeper, who was a wooden doll of a rather stolid appearance. When the Lord Chancellor began to ask him questions he went and fetched his wife, and she was more intelligent, and gave her answers well. ”

“ Keepers of lodging and boarding houses are not innkeepers, nor subject to their liabilities. The proprietor of such a house does not hold himself out to the world as prepared to supply accommodations for all who may apply, nor is he required to receive any persons unless he chooses to do so; an innkeeper's freedom is restricted in this respect. A house may have a double character of boarding house and inn. With transient persons who, without a definite contract, remain from day to day it is an inn; with those under definite contract it is a boarding house. ”

“ The innkeeper plies his trade under more difficult conditions and is glad to accept the tempting cash offers made to him by collectors. In place of the old carved figures or painting, last survival of the days when every building in a town was distinguished by some badge or device, the name of a public-house now generally appears written in gilt letters on the signboard. Even this is frequently lost amid the flaring advertisements of the brewer, and of the various brands of whiskey retailed in the establishment. ”

“ In the progress whereof the French compelled into the service a multitude of young fellows, who were averse to the profession of arms. It unhappily fell out, that the innkeeper's youngest boy, a lad about sixteen years of age, was seized upon by a recruiting party, and hurried into Flanders. The distress of the poor father at this melancholy incident, would probably have been insupportable, if his brother, who was the minister of the parish, had not used every argument, which reason and religion suggested, to alleviate the pangs of the bereaved parent. ”

“ No. I. The Innkeeper is from an unfinished etching and is of particular interest. By some its authenticity is doubted, but John Ireland believed in it, and I, for one, see no reason to call his judgment into question, more particularly as this figure bears a more than chance resemblance to that of “The Innkeeper” in the undoubted Hogarth referred to above published in Jarvis’s edition. In the Van der Banck plate, which represents the knighting of the Don by the Innkeeper, it is also evident that Hogarth’s rival has done him the compliment of adopting his model. ”