Country Homes, Travel, and Inns
By Alexandra Ripp

COUNTRY HOMES

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the British “country home” was at the height of its popularity and importance. Families of the aristocracy possessed both a house in town and a house in the country, and would retire to the latter during weekends in order to relax and hunt.  Some families even owned more than one country home.

Some of the minor gentry (such as the Hardcastles in She Stoops to Conquer) lived permanently in their country houses and did not frequent London. Members of this “country gentry” or “landed gentry,” known as squires, owned less land than those of the aristocracy, but one squire’s estate could still employ hundreds of people.  However, as the rich grew richer in the prosperous Georgian age, they began to buy up large swathes of land from the lesser gentry in order to increase their political power and elevate their social standing.


TRAVEL

Horse, coach, and walking were the major modes of transport in the first half of the eighteenth century. Coach travel was very slow, as the upkeep of roads was often neglected by the local parish or country authorities. Indeed, main thoroughfares aside, the condition of roads was universally deplorable and occasionally dangerous.  

With the improvement of roads in the second half of the eighteenth century, the horse and buggy became the primary mode of travel. Gentlemen of the Georgian era were required to have a strong interest in horses, which were a constant topic of conversation. The coach eventually came to manifest social standing, and coaches became increasingly showy as the age drew on.

Horse and buggy was the fastest and easiest mode of travel at the time. Navigating the Thames River was difficult and time-consuming, and canals, whose construction began in 1761, were better suited to move goods than people. The roads, however, presented a host of dangers for travelers, including robbery by highwaymen, the breakdown and flipping of buggies, the risk of floods, and the whims of unruly horses. One traveler recounts an accident he had: “…the Off Leader shies at a hen flying across the road, and before we had scarce time to think what was afoot, the Coach lurches, and then tumbles over into a ditch, the road being soft with mud at that point….The horses were in an aweful Tangle, kicking and struggling…”


INNS

Inns existed in every corner of the nation for the convenience of the road traveler.  Georgian gentleman Arthur Young noted: “In the remotest parts of the kingdoms a traveler will meet a reception, in most respects different from what he will find in foreign countries; a decent bed; clean sheets; plenty of fuel; wholesome provisions; and generally a civil landlord.” As roads, coach quality, and travel conditions improved, so did inns, so that by 1827 some even resembled the homes of noblemen and served exquisite food.

Yet the quality of inns varied widely, and a traveler could not always expect such pleasant lodging.  Most inns were mediocre establishments, sometimes dirty, inhospitable, and loud. The low quality inn, as described by traveler John Byng, never disappeared: “…the innkeepers are insolent, the hostlers are sulky, the chambermaids are pert, and the waiters are impertinent; the meat is tough, the wine is foul, the beer is hard, the sheets are wet, the linen is dirty, and the knives are never clean’d!!” Inns of poor quality generally existed in areas where industry flourished, such as Manchester. Byng attributes this to the fact that “the upstart man of riches knows no better; the inns therefore are bad, dear, and presumptuous, but on roads where gentlemen travel, and scold, there will be a reform.”