Touring in 1600: A Study in the Development of Travel as a Means of EducationBates, E. S. (Ernest Stuart)
History
Touring in 1600: A Study in the Development of Travel as a Means of Education
Bates, E. S. (Ernest Stuart)
Europe -- Description and travel; Europe -- Social life and customs; Travel -- History
Of all the ill-feeling that the tourists harboured against Spain, the
bitterest was on account of the inns; from the earliest, Andrew Boorde,
who says "hogs shall be under your feet at the table, and lice in your
beds," and another who relates how he preferred to hire three Moors to
hold him in their arms while he slept. Those who come midway through
the period tell the same tale; at Galleretta, on the border of Castile,
a German finds the stable, the bedroom, the kitchen, the dining-room,
the pigsty, one and the same room, and a Papal envoy sleeps on straw
one snowy night without a fire. The latest writes that the sight of the
inns was more than enough. There was but one way to reconcile one's
self to the wayside inn of Spain; and that was—trying those of Portugal.
Over all these inns the Turkish "khan" had this advantage, that there
was no host. A "khan" was a building which some compare to a barn,
and one to a tennis-court, with a platform running round inside the
walls about four feet broad and usually three to four feet high, but
sometimes ten. At intervals of about eight feet were chimneys. The
platform was for the travellers; the inner space for their beasts;
the chimneys for each party to cook food at. That was the normal form,
seeming to an uninstructed traveller just a stable, in which idea he
would be confirmed by the scents in the early morning. The average
Christian found that the noises and the lights prevented sleep, but
the Turk carried a rug to sleep on, used his saddle as a pillow and
his great rain-cloak as a covering and found it comfortable enough
till daybreak, when he thought it suitable to get up, greatly to the
disgust of the Christians present. Or if the moon was very bright, he
might arise earlier by mistake; for he carried no watch, nor believed
one when he saw it. Even in the ordinary "khan" there was often a room
over the door to which the traveller might retire if he chose, but the
Turk seldom used this, preferring to keep an eye on his beasts; and the
Frank consequently might remain unaware that there existed any escape
from the camels. Most "khans," built of hewn stone roofed with lead,
would accommodate from eighty beasts to one hundred and fifty; and
practically always had their fountains for the washings prescribed by
the Turks' religion: but as time went on, far more magnificent places
arose, with covered ways leading to mosques across the road, and many
rooms, capable of holding nearly one thousand travellers and their
belongings. The finest lay along the road leading from Constantinople
to Christendom. The fact that "khan" is indiscriminately applied to
all by most Franks is evidence that they were not on speaking terms
with the natives, to whom many were known as "Imaret," those, that
is, which provided food free. All lodgings were a form of good works
among the richer Turks, a practical attempt to disarm the customary
suspicions of the Grand Signor or the well-justified wrath of Allah;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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