ABOLISHING STUFFINESS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sue,--In his article on " Abolishing Stuffiness," published in your issue of July 12th, Major Yeats-Brown makes the statement that ever since the Middle Ages travellers have complained of the accommodation in English inns. It would be interesting to know on what authority this assertion is based. His statement is certainly not borne out by those descriptions of England published by foreigners during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, for they appear to be unanimous in praising our inns, their cleanliness, the cheeriness of the welcome, the excellence of the fare and the provision of private sitting rooms—a thing unknown on the Continent.
I possess, for instance, a book entitled Voyage d'un Francais en Angleterre, published in 1816 and describing a journey made in 1810. The author, although a Frenchman by birth, was able to travel in England owing to the fact that he was an American citizen. He Landed at Falmouth and wandered through the length and breadth of the land and he never tires of praising the English inns. Here is his first experience at Falmouth :-- " Par fun° do ces entrees nous venons d'etre introduits dans la principal° auberge, qui est un petit batiment, vieux, bas, irregulier, nods extrernement propro. Des rayons do faience &idea tout ce q,i it pcut y avoir de plus tentant, en poisson, gibier, volaille et iiande de boucherie. Des domestiques, polls et Bien vatus, s'empressent ardour (le nous. On nous conduit dans notre apparte-
ment : un salon bion meuble, avec un bon feu of deux ehambros coucher."
When he reaches Bath the luxury is greater, but everywhere the characteristics are the same, the cheeriness of the welcome and the lire burning in the private sitting room. One is reminded of Pickwick's arrival at the ` Saracen's Head' in Towcester :— " In ten minutes time a waiter was laying the cloth for dinner; the curtains were drawn, a fire was blazing brightly and everything looked, as everything always does in all decent English inns, as if
tho travellers had been expected and their comforts prepared for days beforehand."
What a contrast to Arthur Young's description of the dirt and squalor of the French inns at about the same period !
If Major Yeats-Brown would like to see ray book I will lend it him. I am sure he could extract a fascinating article from it.-4 am, Sir, &c., T. C. M.
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