INN (AS. inn. in, lionise, chamber. from in, within, Cloth., 0110_ ter., 01r., Lat. in, Gk. cu. in). The older English name of a place of public entertainment for travelers. In the early ages. when among all except the most savage peoples the law hospitality was Strictly in terpreted. and when. owing to the unsettled con dition of most lands. it was a necessity of exist ence. there was little need for public houses. The earliest approximation to what was later meant by an inn is found in the caravanserais (q.v.) of the East—unfurnished lodgings on the high roads which travelers might occupy on their passage. Such was the 'inn' which was the scene of the birth of Christ. The temples of the ancient religions usually afforded shelter for pilgrims to their shrines. This custom has been kept up in modern pilgrimage places; thus Saint Philip de Neri had an immense hospice built to receive those who came to the jubilee of 1600.
Under the Boman Emperors, houses were estab lished at the posting-stations on the great roads, which began to approximate to the modern inn. These were not. however, open to all corners, but were at the service of Imperial messengers, and of favored persons who could show an authorization known as diploma Irneinforium. There were also lodging-places for unofficial way farers. known as dirersorin or kfabularin, the latter affording accommodation to both man and beast. A classical description is that of Horace in his account in the Satires of his journey to Brundisium, where he characterizes the inn keeper in a spirit of modern protest, as perfidrui •aupo. The city Bona• had many small or rather lodging-lion-es. hail n bad nave, were inspected by the lict ors of the priet or u•dite.
lu l'hristiati times, hospitality being named by Saint Paul as a special duty of a bishop, the episcopal chit. were lilt' first 01 provide shelters for strangers: and the monasteries provided shelter and food for travelers throughout the
.\ges. establishments of this kind remained celebrated e‘en at a later (late, such as those on the Alpine passes of the Dreat and Little Saint Bernard. the Simplon, and Mont Celli:. The unusual amount of traveling brought about by the led to the establishment of brotherhoods specially devoted to the dillies of hospitality, whether the recipients of it were sick or well. See llos•rral.Ens.
The modern inn, at which entertainment was afforded as a matter of business, was of later growth. Erasmus gives a vivid and amusing picture of the crude provisions of the tlerman inns in his lime. Nowhere in Europe did these establish Melds so soon attain a reco;_mized and respectable character as in England, where !fumy of the old inns, with designations frequently adopted from the devices of powerful families, became famous—in London. for example, the Angel, the Bell, the Belle Savage. the 111111 and :Mouth, and the IVIlite Horse. The older ones were usually built round a courtyard, entered from the street by a wide covered passage. This, form, possibly a survival of Roman architectural methods, was Co111111(111 also in France and Italy. The English inns play no small part in the literature of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: and where they still exist, in the smaller places, the friendly personal attention to the guest's eomfort gives them an altrnetive nes. seldom found in the more pretentious modern hotel (q•v.). Consult: "Michel and Fournier. //istoire des /i4:10/erics, cabarets, h6tel.s yarnis. etc. (2 Paris. 1S51) : Bor chardt, Das Gast- foul Schankgro-erfic in Ver ying,uheit vnd (i; re ifswal(1, 1901).