"Janet Baraclough" > wrote in message
...
> The message >
> from "Dimitri" > contains these words:
>
>> The "is everything OK" statement stems from old English common law.
>
> No it doesn't. In Britain, waiters asking that question is a
> relatively recent phenomenon, imported from America. It's only been here
> about 20 yrs, max.
>
> Janet (UK)


Just the start. it goes on forever and ever and ever.


--
Old Scoundrel

(AKA Dimitri)





http://topics.law.cornell.edu/wex/ho...nd_restaurants

hotel and restaurant law: an overview

During the middle ages in England, laws pertaining to inns and taverns were
favored of guests. The most cited reason for such stringent laws was that
innkeepers often colluded with robbers and in many instances helped to rob
their guests. While today's innkeepers are in a different league than their
medieval counterparts, they were still held in low regard by both the law
and the public as late as the 1800s. Even today, most of the common law
regulations protecting guests are still in effect. The rationale of
legislators in allowing these archaic rules to remain on the books is
probably the fact that as long as innkeepers are honest, then the old laws
will not affect them.