Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1882 — Ye Olden Time. [ARTICLE]

Ye Olden Time.

The old, legitimate, delightful idea of an inn is becoming obsolete ; the rapidity with which distance is consumed obviates the needs that so long existed of by-way retreats and halting places. The modern habit of travel lias infinitely lessened the romantic probabilities of a journey ; the rural ale-house and picturesque hostel now exist chiefly in the domain of memory; crowds, haste and ostentation triumph over privacy and rational enjoyment. Old Walton would discover now but few of the secluded inns that refreshed him on bis piscatorial excursions; the ancient ballads on the wall have given place to French paper ; the scent of lavender no longer makes the linen fragrant; instead of the crackle of the open wood fire we have the dingy coal smoke, and blinds usurp the place of snowy curtains. Few hosts can find time to gossip ; the excitement of a stage-coach arrival is no more, and a poet might travel a thousand leagues without meeting a romantic “ maid of the inn,” such as Southey has immortalized. Jollity, freedom and comfort are no longer inevitably associated with the name ; the world has become a vast procession that scorns to linger on its route. Thanks, however, to the conservative spell of literature, we can yet appreciate, in imagination, at least, the good, old English inn. Indeed, it is quite impossible to imagine what British authors would have done without the solace aud inspiration of the inn. Addison fled thither from domestic annoyance ; Dryden’s chair at “ Will’s ” was an oracular throne ; when hard pressed Steele and Savage sought refnge in a tavern and wrote pamphlets; Sterne opens his Sentimental Journey with his landlord; Shenstone confessed he found “life’s warmest welcome at an inn.” The most characteristic scenes of Scott and Dickens occur on thisCvantageground, where the strict unities of life are temporarily discarded, and its zest miraculously quickened by fatigue, hunger, singular mood of adventure and pastime, nowhere else in civilized lands so readily induced,