EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY INNS
beds indeed you will find bad enough in many places; and you must have a care never to sleep but in your own sheets, because the inn-keepers, when they are poor, are generally ill-provided, and are even rogues into the bargain, that will swear no body has slept in the sheets they offer, though the contrary is very apparent; nor will it be amiss to have a thin mattress of your own, stuffed with feathers or Spanish wool, to throw over the mattresses of the inn."[1]
Of Italian beds the English tourist James Edward Smith is one of the few defenders: "In justice to the poor traduced inns of Italy, I think it right to mention here that for the first time," in a little village twenty-two miles from Viterbo, "we met with damp sheets, and were obliged to have them dried. I do not think I ever discovered dirty sheets in Italy, though always very scrupulous in my examinations on that head. England is certainly the most indelicate of all civilized nations with respect to bed and table linen. Our great inns are less to be trusted about sheets than any abroad."[2]
In many other ways the inns were sadly lacking in the most elementary comfort. Smollett and his party went to the inn at San Remo, said to be the best in the place: "We ascended by a dark, narrow, steep stair, into a kind of public room, with a long table and benches, so dirty and miserable that it would disgrace the worst hedge ale-house in England. Not a soul appeared to receive us. This is a ceremony one must not expect to meet with in France, far less in Italy." At last they got some poor rooms, very badly furnished; and bad food. He adds: "You must not expect cleanliness or conveniency of any kind in this country. For this accommodation I payed as much as if I had been elegantly entertained in the best auberge of France or Italy."[3]
The food was commonly of wretched quality, except in the large towns, and one was advised to pick up food for luncheons on the way.[4] Even the large cities could not uniformly be depended upon to make the passing tourist comfortable. Genoa was styled "the superb," but "the
88
- ↑ Manners and Customs of Italy, ii, 321, 322.
- ↑ Tour on the Continent, i, 353, 354.
- ↑ Travels, ii, 12. Smollett was certainly the most unfortunate of travelers. "At the post-house in Lerici," says he, "the accommodation is intolerable. We were almost poisoned at supper." Ibid., ii, 36.
- ↑ De La Lande, Voyage en Italie, i, 266.
