Fynes Moryson (1566-1630) who travelled extensively in Europe and the Near East in the 1590s, waxes eloquent about the superiority of English inns in his Itinerary, published in 1617.

... the World affoords not such Innes as England hath, either for good and cheape entertainement after the Guests owne pleasure, or for humble attendance on passengers, yea, even in very poore Villages, where if Curculio of Plautus, should see the thatched houses, he would fall into a fainting of his spirits, but if he should smell the variety of meates, his starveling looke would be much cheared: For assoone as a passenger comes to an Inne, the servants run to him, and one takes his Horse and walkes him till he be cold, then rubs him, and gives him meate ... Another servant gives the passenger his private chamber, and kindles his fier, the third puls of his bootes, and makes them cleane. Then the Host or Hostesse visits him, and if he will eate with the Host, or at a common Table with others, his meale will cost him sixe pence, or in some places but foure pence ... but if he will eate in his chamber, he commands what meate he will according to his appetite, and as much as he thinkes fit for him and his company, yea, the kitchin is open to him, to command the meat to be dressed as he best likes ...
In the evening or in the morning after breakefast ... he shall have a reckoning in writing, and if it seeme unreasonable, the Host will satisfie him, either for the due price, or by abating part ... Lastly, a Man cannot more freely command at home in his owne House, then hee may doe in his lnne, and at parting if he give some few pence to the Chamberlin & Ostler, they wish him a happy journey.¹

Elsewhere he summarises,

In the Innes men of inferiour condition use to eate at the Hosts Table, and pay som six pence a meale : but Gentlemen have their chambers, and eate alone, except perhaps they have consorts and friends in their company ... But in the Northerne parts, when I passed towards Scotland, Gentlemen themselves did not use to keepe their chambers, but to eat at an ordinarie table together, where they had great plentie of good meate, and especially of choice kinds of fish, and each man paid no more then sixe pence, and sometimes but foure pence a meale.
But there is no place in the World where passengers may so freely command as in the English Inns, and are attended for themselves and their horses aswell as if they were at home, and perhaps better, each servant being ready at call, in hope of a small reward in the morning. Neither did I ever see Innes so well furnished with household stuffe.²

Moryson was mostly talking about the south of England, which he recommends to tourists, based on London with a side-trip to Oxford, though he had journeyed to Edinburgh, up the East coast by Berwick. However, Celia Fiennes a century later does not seem to have found much difficulty in finding accommodation. She notes that at Kendal ‘At the Kings Arms one Mrs. Rowlandson she does pott up the charr fish [a local Lakeland delicacy, potted with sweet spices] the best of any in the country’, and ordered some; though around Windermere she found it difficult to get refreshments: ‘there is sad entertainment, that sort of clap bread and butter and cheese and a cup of beer all one can have’. Indeed, she hardly mentions where she stayed, except for Carlisle, which was substandard:

my Landlady ... ran me up the largest reckoning for allmost nothing; it was the dearest lodging I met with and she pretended she could get me nothing else, so for 2 joynts of mutton and a pinte of wine and bread and beer I had a 12 shilling reckoning; but since, I find tho’ I was in the biggest house in town I was in the worst accomodation, and so found it, and a young giddy Landlady that could only dress fine and entertain the soldiers.

For more about these writers and their work, go to the page Other Travellers.

1.    Fynes Moryson An itinerary (London: John Beale, 1617) Part 3 Book 3 chapter 3. Transcription online at EEBO TCP (page 151 in this section).     Return

2.    Fynes Moryson An itinerary (London: John Beale, 1617) Part 3 Book 2 chapter 1. Transcription online at EEBO TCP (page 61 in this section).     Return