> A house of private entertainment, apart from whatever modern connotations the name might > conjure, was in the 19th century a licensed place to sell booze, possibly meals but which did not > offer overnight accommodation. Based on a reading of the Virginia Code, a house of *private* entertainment did NOT sell liquor but DID offer overnight accommodation. See below: From the Code of Virginia, 1860, Title 28, Chapter XCVI (pages 489-490) [the first major revision of the Virginia code since 1849 and the code that prevailed through the Civil War]: OF HOUSES OF ENTERTAINMENT AND BOWLING SALOONS. Sec. 1. Any person who shall, for compensation, furnish lodging or diet to a person boarding in his house, or provender for a horse feeding in his stable or on his land (except a drove of live stock, and persons attending it), and sell by retail wine or ardent spirits, or a mixture thereof, to be drank in or at the place of sale, shall be deemed to keep an ordinary or house of public entertainment. Sec. 2. Any person who shall, for a time not exceeding one month, if within, or not exceeding one week, if without a city or town, furnish for compensation lodging or diet to one boarding at his house, or provender for a horse feeding his stable or on his land, except as aforesaid, shall, if he be not the keeper of an ordinary, according to the preceding section, be deemed to keep a house of private entertainment, unless the place of furnishing the same, when without a city or town, be more than eight hundred yards from a public road or highway. Sec. 3. For a license to keep a house of entertainment, the application shall be, when the house is in a town having a corporation court, to such court, and when it is not in any such town, to the court of the county wherein it is. If the court of opinion that the applicant is sober and of good character, and will probably keep a house orderly, useful, and such as the law requires, it may grant such license; and if the house be in a town, the court, when it grants the same, may, if the applicant desires it, dispense with the necessity of his providing for horses. If any such application be refused, the refusal shall be entered of record, and a license shall not be granted to the applicant before the next March or April term, unless by a court composed of the same justices to whom the first application was made, or a majority of the acting justices of the county or corporation. Sec. 4. Every person licensed to keep an ordinary, or house of public entertainment, shall constantly provide the same with lodging and diet for travelers and their servants, and unless it be dispensed with as aforesaid, with stableage and provender, or pasturage and provender (as the season may require), for their horses. Any such person may, at the place of a muster or public sale, distant a mile or more from another ordinary, with the consent of the proprietor of such place, vend meat or drink as at his ordinary. Sec. 5. Upon the motion of the commonwealth's attorney for the county or corporation, or of any other person, after ten days' notice to any person so licensed, the court which granted such license may revoke it. It shall always revoke the same when it is satisfied that the object of obtaining the license is not to provide lodging or diet for travelers, but to use it merely as a facility for selling wine or ardent spirits, or a mixture thereof, to be drank in or at the place of sale. Sec. 6. A license to keep a bowling saloon or alley, in a town having a corporation court, may be granted by such court, and when it is to be kept not in such town, by the court of the county wherein it is to be kept. Such license may be revoked, like any other license granted under this chapter. Jill M. Myers Montgomery Village, MD [log in to unmask] To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html