The Time Traveler's Guide to Restoration Britain by Ian Mortimer

Author:Ian Mortimer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pegasus Books
Published: 2017-04-14T16:00:00+00:00

8

Where to Stay

The practicalities of finding accommodation vary from age to age. One of the problems of the Restoration period is the sheer number of people on the road. You might be planning to stay at a favourite inn, only to find on arrival that you have just been beaten to it by a stagecoach from London, so the best rooms have all gone. Another issue arises from the practice of tipping. In the modern world, we think of a tip as a small reward in return for a particular service; in the seventeenth century, it has much more to do with the status of the giver than the service rendered. If you want to be treated as a gentleman, you will pass a sixpence or a shilling to almost every deserving person of lower status that you meet. You will tip the servants in your host’s house as readily as those at an inn. You will give money to the poor and to beggars on the highways, to people who help you with directions and to the washerwoman who comes to clean your clothes. The readiness with which you distribute silver is an important indicator of your largesse, and in many places that will have a bearing on where you may stay overnight.

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