I disagree with Ned Heite in one respect: taverns accommodated travelers and, in doing so, attracted local folk seeking business deals and news. I qualify this disagreement: there was a great deal of variability among inns, taverns, ordinaries, coffee houses and such, depending on location, nature of the local market, local customs, availability of other places for informal and formal gatherings, and the efforts of individual keepers or publicans as entrepreneurs.
James Boswell's autobiography during his time in London and Samuel Pepys' vivid descriptions of his meetings in public places provide some of the flavor of diversity among London's public houses. Peter Thompson's (1999) Rum Punch and Revolution: Taverngoing and Public Life in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania Press) offers a wonderful perspective on the politically vibrant political culture of Philadelphia watering holes.
I think we should use the existing terminology, but qualify what we mean in applying a particular term to a specific site. The label shouldn't mask the distinctiveness of the site, and we may construct new definitions of old terms through empirical studies of individual studies.
Jim Gibb
Annapolis, Maryland USA
----- Original Message -----
From: sharon buford
Sent: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 9:52 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: taverns - historical
I use the word tavern in the historical sense.
This particular site has 4 "guest rooms" which are in
an ell off the rear of the main building and have a
very high level of finish.
According to local history sources "elite farmers"
from Lexington would stop here while in route to Cin,
OH.
I have almost come to the conclusion that I should
make up a new word for the place.
It was a tavern, in the sense that there is evidence
that they sold "spirits", it was also an "inn" as the
travlers were given a "room or bed" for the evening.
Perhaps the word "tavrinn" would work :)
Sharon
--- Edward Heite <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Over and over, I see the word "tavern" equated with
> the modern
> licensing term of the same spelling. Look carefully
> and you may find
> that a "tavern" in historical reference is not the
> same kind of
> establishment as we know today.
>
> Under pre-prohibition laws, a tavern was a place
> licensed to feed and
> shelter travellers' horses, provide limited sleeping
> facilities for
> people, and cold meat. It was not a place where the
> locals went
> nightly to quaff port. Look at tavern petitions,
> sales lists of
> tavernkeepers estates, and most of all travelers
> accounts, and you will
> understand the inventories of archaeological tavern
> diggings. Over and
> over, people remark of the paucity of glass, the
> large number of horse
> accoutrements, and the non-drinking merchandise. In
> one "tavern" site
> the lime kiln was the most important asset, and
> there was only one
> bedstead.
>
> So, after the hard day's digging, please don't
> recess to a "tavern,"
> even a licensed premises with facilities for your
> horse.
>
>
>
>
>
> HEITE CONSULTING
> Camden, DE
> [log in to unmask]
> www.heite.org
> 302-697-1789
>
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