Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyts New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Inn, Tavern
You may go to Carlisles and to Almanacs too; And Ill give you my Head if you find such a Host, For Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, Butter, or Toast; How he welcomes at once all the World and his Wife, And how civil to Folks he neer saw in his Life. AnsteyNew Bath Guide. Fourth Ed. (1767). P. 130. Phrase the world and his wife also found in SwiftPolite Conversation. Third Dialogue. Another version All the world and Little Billing. A parish in Northamptonshire.
He who has not been at a tavern knows not what a paradise it is. O holy tavern! O miraculous tavern!holy, because no carking cares are there, nor weariness, nor pain; and miraculous, because of the spits, which themselves turn round and round! AretinoQuoted by Longfellow in Hyperion. Bk. III. Ch. II.
He had scarcely gone a short league, when Fortune, that was conducting his affairs from good to better, discovered to him the road, where he also espied an Inn. Sancho positively maintained it was an Inn, and his master that it was a castle; and the dispute lasted so long that they arrived there before it was determined. CervantesDon Quixote. Pt. I. Ch. XV.
Now musing oer the changing scene Farmers behind the tavern screen Collect; with elbows idly pressd On hob, reclines the corners guest, Reading the news to mark again The bankrupt lists or price of grain. Puffing the while his red-tipt pipe He dreams oer troubles nearly ripe, Yet, winters leisure to regale, Hopes better times, and sips his ale. ClareShepherds Calendar.
Alone the varying road of life, In calm content, in toil or strife, At morn or noon, by night or day, As time conducts him on his way, How oft doth man, by care oppressed, Find in an Inn a place of rest. Wm. CombeDr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque. Canto IX. L. 1.
Whereer his fancy bids him roam, In evry Inn he finds a home * * * * * Will not an Inn his cares beguile, Where on each face he sees a smile? Wm. CombeDr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque. Canto IX. L. 13.
There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn. Samuel JohnsonBoswells Life of Johnson. (1776).
Whoeer has traveld lifes dull round, Whereer his stages may have been, May sigh to think he still has found The warmest welcome, at an inn. ShenstoneWritten at an Inn at Henley. Different version in Dodsleys Collection.
What care if the day Be turned to gray, What care if the night come soon! We may choose the pace Who bow for grace, At the Inn of the Silver Moon. Herman Knickerbocker VieléThe Good Inn.