Page:A short history of social life in England.djvu/149

Rh for the unwary, the forests were filled with outlaws, ready to slay the pilgrim and plunder the solitary merchant Fortunately, there were plenty of inns on all the main roads, though they must have been rough and uncomfortable.

"William," advises a traveller who has had a disturbed night at one of these wayside inns, "William, undress and wash your legs, and then dry them with a cloth, and rub them well for love of the fleas, that they may not leap on your legs, for there is a pack of them lying in the dust under the rushes. Hi! the fleas bite me so!"

Here, notwithstanding dirt and discomfort, wayfarers supped and slept, pursuing their journey at daybreak. In addition to the inns there were ale-houses by the road side, indicated by a long stake on which hung a garland or bush, giving rise to the proverb "Good wine needs no bush." Here was much drinking and merry-making, and though no spirits were as yet invented, the atmosphere and conviviality remind one of the modern public-house. "Many come here," says a woman writer of the times, "in order to drink, and they spend here, 'tis perfectly true, more than they have gained all day."

With such roads, it is small wonder that even