Expert: Mark Smith - 12/15/2007

Question
QUESTION: In Somerset, 1848, would a country inn be gaslit?  If not, when would it first be gaslit?

ANSWER: Hello Elizabeth.
It is unlikely that a remote country inn would be lit by gas in 1848. Although common in towns and cities gas was not used in remote areas as it was not cost effective to lay the pipelines for isolated houses. If the inn was in a village or perhaps lay on the route of a gas pipe it might have received gas by the 1850s. But if it was an isolated building it may have been many years before gas reached it.
Mark

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Would the country inn have been more likely to use oil lamps or candles?  Would candle holders have been affixed to the walls?

ANSWER: Hello again. Probably both. Candles were cheaper, so a "lower" class of inn would have used them more so than oil lamps. A "higher" class of establishment would have had both candles and oil lamps in the public rooms as an oil lamp gave off more light, they would have needed a great many candles to achieve the same illumination. The problem with oil lamps before about 1850 was that they burned animal fats which were smoky and smelly. In the 1850s paraffin was used which was a great improvement.
There would have been both portable candle-holders and wall brackets plus chandeliers too in larger establishments.
Mark

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QUESTION: In Somerset, 1848, how would mail be transported to villages?

Answer
Hello again. Are you writing a novel ?
Mail was delivered and collected in pretty much the same way as today. Postage stamps were introduced in 1840, so a letter would be posted at a post office, there were no pillar boxes until the 1850s, and a postman would deliver as they do today. Letters would be transported around the country by rail in 1848 and delivered to the post office by road for the postman to deliver on foot. The service was remarkably efficient, more so than today.
Mark