regarding most of which will be found under their separate headings. In the ornamental treatment of metal surfaces Niello decoration, applied to silver and gold, is an ancient and much-practised species of inlaying. It consists in filling up engraved designs with a composition of silver, copper, lead and sulphur incorporated by heat. The composition is black, and the finished work has the appearance of a drawing in black on a metallic plate. An art, analogous in effect, called bidri, from Bider in the Deccan, is practised in India. In bidri work the ground is an alloy of zinc, with small proportions of copper and lead, in which shallow patterns and devices are traced, and filled up with thin plates of silver. When the surface has been evened and smoothed, the bidri ground is stained a permanent black by a paste the chief ingredients of which are sal-ammoniac and nitre, leaving a pleasing contrast of bright metallic silver in a dead black ground. The inlaying of gold wire in iron or steel is known as Damascening (q.v.). It has been very largely practised in Persia and India for the ornamentation of arms and armour, being known in the latter country as Kuft work or Kuftgari. In Kashmir, vessels of copper and brass are very effectively inlaid with tin—an art which, like many other decorative arts, appears to have originated in Persia. In the ornamental inlaying of metal surfaces the Japanese display the most extraordinary skill and perfection of workmanship. In the inlaying of their fine bronzes they use principally gold and silver, but for large articles and also for common cast hollow ware commoner metals and alloys are employed. In inlaying bronzes they generally hollow out and somewhat undercut the design, into which the ornamenting metal, usually in the form of wire, is laid and hammered over. Frequently the lacquer work of the Japanese is inlaid with mother-of-pearl and other substances, in the same manner as is practised in ornamenting lacquered papier-mâché among Western communities. The Japanese also practise the various methods of inlaying referred to under Damascening. The term Mosaic (q.v.) is generally applied to inlaid work in hard stones, marble and glass, but the most important class of mosaics—those which consist of innumerable small separate pieces—do not properly come under the head of inlaying. Inlaid mosaics are those in which coloured designs are inserted in spaces cut in a solid ground or basis, such as the modern Florentine mosaic, which consists of thin veneers of precious coloured stones set in slabs of marble. The Taj Mahal at Agra is an example of inlaid mosaic in white marble, and the art, carried to that city by a French artist, is still practised by native workmen. Pietra dura is a fine variety of inlaid mosaic in which hard and expensive stones—agate, cornelian, amethyst and the like—are used in relief. Certain kinds of enamel might also be included among the varieties of inlaying. (See also Marquetry and Bombay Furniture.)
INMAN, HENRY (1801–1846), American artist, was born in
Utica, New York, on the 20th of October 1801. Apprenticed
to the painter John W. Jarvis at the age of fourteen, he left
him after seven years and set up for himself, painting portraits,
genre and landscape. He was one of the organizers of the
National Academy of Design in New York and its first vice-president
(from 1826 until 1832). As a portrait painter he was
highly successful both in New York and Philadelphia, and going
to England in 1844, he had for sitters the Lord Chancellor
(Cottenham), the poet Wordsworth, Doctor Chalmers, Lord
Macaulay and others. His American sitters included President
Van Buren and Chief Justice Marshall. He died in New York
City on the 17th of January 1846.
INN, a river of Europe, an important right bank tributary
of the Danube. It rises at an elevation of 7800 ft., in a small
lake under the Piz Longhino, in the Swiss canton of the Grisons.
After flowing for a distance of 55 m., through the Engadine it
leaves Swiss territory at Martinsbruck and enters Austria. It
next plunges through the deep ravine of Finstermünz, and,
continuing in the main a north-easterly direction, receives
at Landeck the Rosanna. Hence its course becomes more
rapid, until, after swirling through the narrow and romantic
Oberinnthal, it enters the broader and pastoral Unterinnthal.
It next passes Innsbruck and from Hall, a few miles lower down,
begins to be navigable for barges. At Kufstein, down to which
point it has still pursued a north-easterly direction, it breaks
through the north Tirol limestone formation, and, now keeping
a northerly course, enters at Rosenheim the Bavarian high
plateau. Its bed is now broad, studded with islands and
enclosed by high banks. Its chief tributaries on this last portion
of its course are the Alz and the Salzach, and at Passau, 309 m.
from its source, it joins the Danube, which river down to that
point it equals in length and far exceeds in volume of water.
Its rapid current does not permit of extensive navigation, but
timber rafts are floated down from above Innsbruck.
See Greinz, Eine Wanderung durch das Unterinntal (Stuttgart, 1902).
INN and INNKEEPER. An inn is a house where travellers
are fed and lodged for reward. A distinction has been drawn
between tavern, inn and hotel, the tavern supplying food and
drink, the hotel lodging, the inn both; but this is fanciful.
“Hotel” now means “inn,” and “inn” is often applied to a
mere public-house, whilst “tavern” is less used. “Inn,” still
the legal and best, as it is the oldest, is a form of the word “in”
or “within.” This sense is retained in the case of the English
legal societies still known as Inns of Court (q.v.). In the Bible
“inn” means “lodging-place for the night.” Hospitality has
always been a sacred duty in the East. The pilgrim or the
traveller claims it as a right. But some routes were crowded,
as that from Bagdad to Babylon. On these, khans (in or near
a town) and caravanserais (in waste places) were erected at the
expense of the benevolent. They consisted of a square building
surrounded by a high wall; on the roof there was a terrace and
over the gateway a tower; inside, was a large court surrounded
by compartments in which was some rude provision for the
animals and baggage of the traveller as well as for himself.
The latter purchased his own food where he chose, and had to
“do for himself.” In some such place Jesus was born. Tavern
is mentioned once in Scripture (Acts xxviii. 15) where it is said
the brethren from Rome met Paul at “the Three Taverns.”
This was a station on the Appian Way, referred to also in Cicero’s
Letters (Ad Att. ii. 12). So, in modern London, stations are
called “Elephant and Castle,” or “Bricklayers’ Arms,” from
adjacent houses of entertainment. Among the Greeks inns and
innkeepers were held in low repute. The houses were bad and
those who kept them had a bad name. A self-respecting Greek
entered them as seldom as possible; if he travelled he relied on
the hospitality of friends. In Rome under the emperors something
akin to the modern inn grew up. There is, however,
scarcely any mention of such institutions in the capital as distinguished
from mere wine-shops or eating-houses. Ambassadors
were lodged in apartments at the expense of the state. But
along the great roads that radiated from Rome there were inns.
Horace’s account of his journey to Brundisium (Sat. i. 5),
that brilliant picture of contemporary travel, tells us of their
existence, and the very name of the Three Taverns shows that
there was sufficient custom to support a knot of these institutions
at one place. Under the Roman law, the innkeeper was answerable
for the property of his guests unless the damage was due to
damnum fatale or vis major, in modern language the act of God
or the king’s enemies. He was also liable for damage done by
his servant or his slave or other inhabitant of the house.
In the middle ages hospitality was still regarded as a duty, and provision for travellers was regularly made in the monasteries. People of rank were admitted to the house itself, others sought the guest-chamber, which sometimes stood (as at Battle Abbey) outside the precincts. It consisted of a hall, round which were sleeping-rooms, though the floor of the hall itself was often utilized. Again, hospitality was rarely denied at the castle or country house. The knight supped with his host at the daïs or upper part of the great hall, and retired with him into his own apartment. His followers, or the meaner strangers, sat lower down at meat, and after the tables had been removed stretched themselves to rest upon the floor. In desolate parts hospices
