Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/354

 334 Hiflory of Domejiic Manners guefts, and they appear to have adopted various artifices to aUure them to their houfes. Thefe extortions are the lubjeft of a very curious Latin poem of the thirteenth century, entitled " Peregrinus" (the Traveller), the author of which defcribes the arts employed to allure the traveller, and the extortions to which he was fubjefted. It appears that perfons were employed to look out for the arrival of ftrangers, and that they entered into converfation with them, pretended to difcover that they came from the fame part of the country, and then, as taking efpecial interefi: in their fellow-countrymen, recommended them to lodgings. Thefe tricks of the burghers who let their lodgings for hire are alluded to in other mediaeval MTiters. It appears, alfo, that both in thefe lodging-houfes and in the public inns, it was not an unufual pra6lice to draw people into contrafting heavy bills, which they had not the money to pay, and then to feize their baggage and even their clothes, to feveral times the amount of the debt. No. 224. A Hojidry at night. Our cut No. 224, taken from an illumination in the unique manufcript of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles (fifteenth century), in the Hunterian Library