Page:A History of Domestic Manners and Sentiments in England During the Middle Ages.djvu/456

 43^ Hijlory of Do?}jeJlic Maimers rode in two cars, or carts, one of which fell over, and expofed its fair occupants in a not very decorous manner to the jeers of the multitude. As yet carriages feem not to have been ufed in travelling, which was performed on horfeback or on foot. During the century of which we are fpeaking, efpecially after the acceffion of Henry VI. to the Englilh throne, the roads were extremely infecure, the country being infefted by fuch numerous bands of robbers that it was neceffary to travel in con- liderable companies, and well armed. From this circumftance, and from the political condition of the age, the retinue of the nobility and gentry prefented a very formidable appearance ; and fuch as could only afford to travel with one or two fervants generally attached themfelves to fome powerful neighbour, and contrived to make their occafions of locomotion coincide with his. We find feveral allufions to the dangers of travelling in the Pafton Letters. In a letter dated in 1455 or 1460 (it is uncertain which), Margaret Paflon defires her hulband, then in London, to pay a debt for one of their friends, becaufe, on account of the robbers who befet the road, money could not be fent fafely from Norfolk to the capital. A year or two earlier, we hear of a knight of Suffolk riding with a hundred horfemen, armed defenfively and offenfively, befides the accompaniment of friends. As travelling, however, be- came frequent, it led to the multiplication of places of entertainment on the roads, and large hoftelries and inns were now fcattered pretty thickly over the country, not only in all the fmaller towns, but often in villages, and fometimes even in comparatively lonely places. In the 7). No. 275. A Publican. manufcript of the French Boccaccio in the Imperial Library (No. there is a picture (copied in our cut No. 275) reprefenting a publican ferving his liquor on a bench outfide his door. The tavern was the general lounge of the idle, and even of the induftrious, during their hours of relaxation 3 and in the towns a good part