Subtitle: Being Two Hundred Pictures of the English Inn from the Earliest Times to the Coming of the Railway Hotel. Somewhat misleading - this is not a book of two hundred pictures, but two hundred observations on the history of the English inn and its role in society, travel, festivals, portentous solemnity, a place of repose...The observations come from a fantastic diversity of names: John Bunyan, Samuel Pepys, Daniel Defoe, James Boswell, Disraeli, Dickens, Washington Irving, Thomas de Quincey, Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, 'George Eliot', Chaucer, Anthony Trollope and many more. The theme of the observations is as diverse as the contributors: from the 'gallant' in the tavern to the arranging of duels; from gluttons to gourmands; from highwaymen to harridans; from cockroaches to cleanliness and - of course - hosts and hostesses.