LETTER LI.
Frankfort.
Among the remarkable things in Frankfort the inns may be reckoned. Two in particular, the Emperor and the Red House, for cleanliness, conveniency, and number of apartments, are superior to any I ever saw on the continent, and vie with our most magnificent inns in England.
At these, as at all other inns in Germany and Switzerland, there is an ordinary, at which the strangers may dine and sup. This is called the Table d’Hôte, from the circumstance of the landlord’s sitting at the bottom of the table and carving the victuals. The same name for an ordinary is still retained in France, tho’ the landlord does not sit at the table, which was the case formerly in that country, and still is the custom in Germany.
There are no private lodgings to be had here as in London, nor any hôtels garnis as in Paris. Strangers therefore retain apartments at the inn during the whole time of their residence in any of the towns. And travellers of every denomination in this country under the rank of sovereign princes, make no scruple of eating occasionally at the table d’Hôte of the inn where they lodge, which custom is universally followed by strangers from every country on the continent of Europe.
Many of our countrymen, however, who despise œconomy, and hate the company of strangers, prefer eating in their own apartments to the table d’Hôte, or any private table to which they may be invited.
It would be arrogance in any body to dispute the right which every free-born Englishman has to follow his own inclination in this particular: Yet when people wish to avoid the company of strangers, it strikes me, that they might indulge their fancy as completely at home as abroad; and while they continue in that humour, I cannot help thinking that they might save themselves the inconveniency and expence of travelling.