of
Mexico to his sister. When Parson Oxenbridge was striken with apoplexy
in the pulpit of the First Church in Boston, he was "carried home in a
Cedan." On August 3, 1687, Judge Sewall wrote in his diary: "Capt.
Gerrish is carried in a Sedan to the Wharf and so takes boat for Salem."
Again he writes on May 31, 1715: "The Gov'r comes first to Town, was
carried from Mr. Dudleys to the Town-House in Cous. Dumers Sedan; but
'twas too tall for the Stairs, so was fain to be taken out near the top
of them." The Governor had had a bad attack of gout.

On September 11, 1706, Sewall writes: "Five Indians carried Mr.
Bromfield in a chair." And though I have never seen the sale of a sedan
mentioned, several times I have fancied that the reference to the sale
of a chair meant a sedan-chair. In the memoirs of Eliza Quincey she
speaks of riding in a sedan, and of seeing Dr. Franklin in one in 1789.

At a surprisingly early date, when we consider the limited opportunities
for travel, the colonial authorities licensed taverns or ordinaries, and
also made strict laws governing them. The landlords could not sell sack
or strong water; nor permit games to be played in their precincts; nor
allow dancing or singing; nor could tobacco be used within their walls;
nor could they sell cakes or buns indiscriminately. Samuel Cole, the
Boston comfit-maker, received his license in 1634, though one can hardly
understand, with such manifold rules of narrow limit, how he could wish
it. Previously other freemen had obtained permission "to draw wine and
beer" to sell at retail to their neighbors and to travellers. In New
Haven the tavern-keeper had been given twenty acres of land in 1645, in
which travellers' horses could be pastured. In Hartford and other river
towns the establishment of taverns was compulsory. The ordinaries
quickly multiplied in number and increased in pretension. In Boston, in
1651, the King's Arms and its furniture were held to be worth L600.
Board was cheap enough. In 1634 the Court set the price of a single meal
at sixpence, and an ale quart of beer at a penny. At the Ship Tavern a
man had "fire and bed, dyet, wyne and beere betweene meals" for three
shillings a day. The wine was limited to "a cupp each man at dynner &
supp & no more." Following the English fashion of Shakespeare's time,
the inn chambers were each named: The Exchange Chamber, Rose and Sun
Chamber, Star Chamber, Court Chamber, Jerusalem Chamber, etc. The names
of