By the Rev. A. C. Smith. 307 
when a landlord opens a new tavern, he selects his sign solely from 
his own private fancy, and with no ulterior intention: and indeed 
if we were discussing the question with regard to modern times, I 
incline to think that such is very much the case. But I am bold 
to maintain, that, if we look back to the origin of sign-boards, and 
indeed to the origin of houses of public entertainment themselves, 
we shall find that a very different state of things governed the whole 
proceeding; and this, I think, is a matter which well deserves the 
attention of the archeologist. 
To refer to the origin of inns in England, we shall have to go back 
+o a somewhat distant period. Macaulay tells us that in the reign 
of Elizabeth, the English inns were notorious for their excellent and 
even luxurious accommodation, in which they far surpassed the great 
hostelries of the Continent: while Chaucer describes in brilliant 
colours the admirable entertainment they afforded to the pilgrims 
of the fourteenth century. How far beyond that we may push our 
enquiries, I am unable to define with accuracy, though I have a 
strong presumption that the period referred to in the Canterbury 
Tales is not far from the limit of their general introduction. Certain 
at any rate it is, that, previous to the establishment of a house of 
public entertainment in any locality, the noble’s, or squire’s mansion 
of the neighbourhood did its duty, and more or less hospitably pro- 
vided hoard and lodging for the wayfarer, whoever he might be, who 
erayed food and shelter; just as was the universal custom in the 
more remote districts of Scotland not so very long since, and as I 
myself many times experienced during a tour in Norway, seven-and- 
twenty years ago, when that thinly-peopled but most charming 
country was but little visited by travellers, and houses of public en- 
tertainment were as yet almost unknown. 
_ It will be readily seen that when the chief house of the district 
entertained all comers, travellers would not have been very numerous. 
‘Those were the days of bad roads and scanty locomotion, good old- 
fashioned stay-at-home times, when a journey to the county-town, 
ten miles off, was a feat to be remembered and talked off; anda 
journey of fifty miles was a really serious and even perilous matter, 
not to be undertaken without much preparation: sometimes, we are 
