"THE BOOK-OF THE INN "

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 147, 23 June 1928, Page 21

"THE BOOK-OF THE INN "

A BRIGHT ANTHOLOGY ■ "'■ '■ (By "Ajax.") . •' A nionth.br two ago I thought myself very lucky in picking up at less than- half the published price one of the latest and best-reviewed of anthologies:' ■■'.■■ THE BOOK 01' THE INN being two hundred pictures of the cngllsh inn from the earliest . times to tho coming of , the railway hotel selected and edited by . THOJIAS BUKKE Note..that not, e.ven. f'english'.' is allowed a capital here —on a title-page of all places in tho world! Nor is one allowed to either of the participles that follow. It is a beautiful book with its clear typo, ample margins; limp green cloth, and gilt edges; and though tho reviewers had not prepared mo for the lack of an index,.even of writers —how few of the critics have the time to worry about such trifles! —:I could see that I was getting very good value for my money. But oy tho time I had taken tho book home and discovered that' thero were no references except of the vaguest character—"William Shakespeare" and "Sir Walter Scott," "Carl Philip Moritz" and "Prince Muskau," and' "Old Broadside," all without the vestige of a date—l-began to see'that-in this beautiful volume there was a good deal of irritation to diseouiit its joys. Mr. Burkes selections, which, lie •'says, range ' frbriv AVilliam Langland.to Anthony Trollopo, are ad-mirable,-but of his editing the less said . the better. tt « •» ■::• Mr. Burlce's. preface contains some good writing.and some very plain spcak>' ing. His Dedication is, in the first place, ' . To ■ All Virtuous and Illustrious Hosts and Hostesses Whoso Lives aro Dedicate to the Noble Art of Innkeeplng; And in the second place '"To All Travellers," for whom ho wishes Good Boads, free of East Winds and Magneto . Trouble, and at their Inns, Honest XJsago and Fair Reckonings. Mr. "Burke is far from confirming the general idea that the revival of road- • travel by tho, motor-car has brought tho English country-inn back to ' life again, and in a finer and fuller form. On the contrary, he* rather suggests that the motorist with his money has spoilt the inn for other people, but with his haste has failed to make a really good thing of it for himself. There arc, writes Mr. Burke, some Ofty'inns in England, kept by enlightened' hosts and hostesses, which deserve every epithet of praise. There aro hundreds of others ■ that are still living in the late eighteenth century; and many have como back to no more than faint breathing. In ono point there has been little change since tho days of Smollett. Snobbery still rules the inn. Arrivo in a car, and you are received with some interest. Arrive on foot or by train, and you are given merely the icy edge of civility. At an inn in Berkshire recently, when I was walking, I received a precisely similar reception to those mentioned by Pastor Mor'itz and de Quincey. I was flatly told that I could not have a room; that their rooms 'were reserved for motorists; and I was politely directed to a public-house across the , way—whore, 1 may add, I was given, a clean bright .room, bath, supper, breakfast, and brisk attention for nlno-and-sixpcnce. • . •I think tho imperfections of the modern Inn are mainly duo to the motorists. Motorists, as a'class, live In/a state of hurry. They aro always anxious to go on. They do not travel; they buzz from place to place; and they put up with treatment and food-that they aro too hasty to examine, and that tho slower and moro critical commercial traveller would not suffer lor a moment. Among the inferior inns Mr. Burke' includes some of those that bear_ the insignia of certain motor associations. Ono of those is to be found, ho says, in a villago within 50 miles of London— tho soft of place you might find in a.villago of Western' Ireland—decayed, slapdash, ■ and obviously surprised to get a customer, and having nothing to offer him but a peeling wallpaper and meals out. of a tin. f . - ■ . Mr. Bnrlcc also wonders where some of these inns find their cooks, and asks, - Why aro their kitchens run like a Ford car —replenished day by day .from- standardized Stores ? V ,:, . . , Inns which have nothing to offer their gusts but peeling wallpaper, meals but .of a tin, and kitchens run like a Ford car (Old style) must surely, one might suppose, be on their last legs. But such things are-still- to be found'in tho midst of the revival of which we have heard so much. V,Mr. Burke." describes'a visit that ho paid to.a famous old inn on the Bath road with an American friend, who had^been anxious to see it on his first trip, to England. They /admired tho stone front "and tlip Oriel window, the long yard, in which twenty motors were parked, and the gallery hung with creeper} tho old bells and tho old blunderbusses, the old oak doors and bolts. But they were unable .to adiniro the lunch. • ' ■ «■■'■■'-#. * • Mr. Burko gives a painfully vivid description of tho menu, , which concluded with, cheese —"two hard lumps that ' must.'. have left Canada a 'year before"; coffee, '.'freshly made by somebody who had once kept a London , coffee-stall"; and the bill —5s each. But his American friend waved Mr. Burkes apologies aside with a smile. No, no, ho said; that's all right.' I thur'ly enjoyed that. That is what I came to see. I'll-ijavo'something to tell the folks when I get home. I've seen tho real thing. Tiiis dingy dining-room, this cloth—those old oak panels—that flno old: gallery—(hat fly-blown waitress—this bit ot wa*y cheese — tills eatJng rubbish out of a tin when yoti'vo got si Garden of Eden on the premises—these things, friend Burke, aro England!" The last word of Mr. Burkes preface is a request to the inn-keepers who read Ms book: — ■ ■ Will they kindly note that I 'wanted to contradict my friend and that I couldn't? » a . * •» Tho contrast between this reproachful finish and the high note on which Mr. Burke"'opened his preface is about as thorough as it well could be. That' top note of his is indeed a good deal too high for me. It is beyond my compass, not to say my comprehension. I must be content to admire blindly and to quote faithfully: ' The Christian Church began in tho stable of an inn, and to this day tlie inn figures in cjur minds as tho material counterpart of tho Church; It succours and fortifies the mortal, in timo of need, as the Church succours and fortifies tho immortal. It is tho stago of a pilgrimage. Wo find there refuge and solaces, sleep for weariness, meat and wine for hunger, chance company and the brotherhood of men. In almost every old village of England tho Church splro or tower denotes tho position of the inn. For centuries they have stood together, complementing each other in a beautiful wedding of spirit ami sense; and, despite the conspiracies of certain evildisposed persons to sever them, they still stand. Should we abolish the inn, we might as well prepare to abolish tjio Church, for. when men have forgotten how to rejoice they will have forgotten how to prny. • * ♦ » Mr. Burkes grave words will, I trust, ho considered during the next five or sis months with all the gravity they deserve by those whom they particularly concern. For my part, I should be exceedingly sorry- to join the conspiracies of any evil-disposed persons i'or the abolition of the Church or anything else that is worth preserving, but further than that I do not care to commit myself. In this column, at any rate, my heart must not bo haughty; neither do I exercise myself in great matters nor in things too. high for me' Mr. Burkes thoughts on the relations between the Christian Church and its "material counterpart" arc far too high

for nie. I must be content to gasp and admire and pass on. My only serious complaint against him is that his pret'ac'o has proved to be so interesting as to prevent'my doing justico'to his anthology. Under six sections, headed respectively "A ■ Lodging for the Night," "Mine Host and Hostess,"*"Arrival and Departure," "Chambermaid, Ostler, Drawer," "Adventure and Encounter," and "Taking Mine Ease," he has filled-400 pages with a bill of fare which, is equally entertaining from the standpoints' of letters and of social history. On both accounts it would have been better Bttyi' but for the unfortu-. nate omission already noted of references and dates. »■ «. «• * Larigland and Chaucer are Mr. BurkeS earliest contributors. The Elizabethan': dramatists are well represented by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Dekker, Massinger,ahd others. Pepys and Boswell, Walton and Defoe, Addison and Goldsmith, Fielding and Smollett, Hazlitt and Scott, Cobbett and Borrow are among the other great names. It is a singularly rich and varied company, and the portions are so liberal that, unlike most other anthologies, it could be read right through in complete comfort. Excluding Falstaff and his disreputable friends, who would of course get everybody's first vote, Do Quincey and Dickens have appealed to me most from their vivid pictures of tho great coaching days, when the roads were very bad, the pace was about six miles an hour, and the inn was at its best. • * * • Yet. for , the purposes of quotation Macaulay's explanation of the failure of the inn to keep pace with the improvement of the road and the conveyance is not easy to beat:— SNor is this strange.; for it, is evident that, | all other circumstances being supposed equal, tho'inns will >bo • best. where tho means of locomotion,aro.worst.' The quicker tho rate of travelling, the less* important is -it that there should be numerous agreeable restingplaces for the traveller, A hundred and sixty years ago a person who came up .to tho capital from a remote county generally required twelve or fifteen meals, and lodging for flvo or six nights by the way. If he were a great man, he expected the meals and lodging to be comfortable, and even luxurious. At present, wo fly from York or Exeter . to London by the light of a single winter's day. At present, therefore, a traveller seldom Interrupts his: journey merely for the sake of rest and refreshment. Tho consequenco is that hundreds of excellent inns have fallen into utter decay. In a short time no good houses of that description will be found, except at places where strangers arc likely to bo detained by business or pleasure. The- impro\-ement which the motor-car is making will be checked again when the road is deserted for the air, but for tho pedestrian even an innless road may. be preferable to tho present dangers. .