THE MEDIEVAL INNKEEPER holder furnishing occasional accommodation to a transient guest. The inn was an out growth of the private house, and the kind of house employed and the general conduct of life in the house would be the same in the early inn and the private house of the same period. In order to discover the nature of the accommodation afforded by the inn it will therefore be worth while to examine the plan of life in the ordinary dwelling of the time. The English houses of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries differed greatly, of course, in size and in elegance, but the plan of life in all houses had certain common features. Life indoors centered about the great hall, the principal part of the house, to which other parts were added as they might be required. In the hall the days were spent, so far as they were spent in doors, meals were eaten, and night having come the tables were removed and the beds were spread. The mistress, to be sure, had a small room of her own, the bower, into which she could retire at any time, and the master of the house had a separate chamber in which he slept. But the retainers, the servants, and the ordinary guests slept together in the common hall. The house of a man who was well to do might have an additional chamber for guests, and a stable was usually attached to the hall at one end. The hall was warmed and lighted by a great fire. In each chamber there was a small fire place for heat, and light was given by a candle. The inn was undoubtedly built on th;s same plan, even when a building was built especially for an inn; in most cases doubtless the inn had been built for an ordinary dwelling house. The weary trav eler coming to the inn at nightfall would have his supper at the great table, and his bed would then be spread in the hall itself. Heat and such light as was necessary he would have from the hall fire. If he brought a horse and paid for his keep, we are told he paid no extra charge for his bed, but the foot traveler paid a small sum for his
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lodging. A traveler of better estate would pay for and receive accommodation in a small chamber. There he would be served with food and his bed would be spread, and he would be charged not merely for the food and lodging, but also for his fire and his candle. Even there he would not be likely to occupy the chamber alone, or even a bed alone; the king himself on his travels was expected to have a bedfellow, and a private person would be fortunate if he had only one. Still he was traveling in luxury if he shared with two or three others a private chamber, a private bed, and a private fire. As time went on and the business of the innkeepers increased, especially in the great towns, buildings were built as inns, the number of chambers being greatly increased. In the sixteenth century we he?r of inns in London which could accommodate one hundred guests. It must be clear that with so many guests the common hall would be needed for their reception and for the general table; and the guests must have all been put into special chambers for sleeping; but most of these were undoubtedly still common cham bers, in which travelers were put as they happened to come, sharing not merely the chamber but the bed with strange bed fellows. Such being the business and such the customs of innkeepers, their responsibility, which seen through modern eyes seems anomalous, is easily explained. They under take as a business to furnish food, protection, and shelter to the wayfaring guest; having undertaken such a public business, and the public need being concerned, the inn keeper must supply his service to all; and in order to perform his undertaking he must furnish not merely sufficient food and a tight roof, but sufficient protection against the dangers of country traveling. Either to refuse shelter, to fail to provide food, or to permit robbers from outside to enter the inn would be a breach of his obligation and would render him liable to action. But this is not the limit of his obligation. If
