Lets go for a beer, mine's a pint!
Well the party arrives at Bree, in hope of good food, a nice relaxing beer or six and a good night's sleep, oh dear, how wrong can you be.
First of all Harry Goatleaf, I thought of as a typical minor functionary jobsworth, being obstructive just for the sake of it, but then suborned by the bad guys. I reckon him as mean-spirited but in a small way, like the Sandymans.
Was the black shape that jumped over the gate Aragorn or a Nazgul? I feel I ought to know but can't remember at present.
Now to the Inn. I think here that JRRT was drawing on his vast experience of Oxfordshire pubs in this scene, specifically the peculiar feeling you get on entering a strange local. I guess for those unfamiliar it is best illustrated by 'The Hanged Man' in 'American Werewolf in London'. On entering such an unknown establishment of refreshment one looks for the little clues to tell you how the evening is going to go, decoration is no guide, punters' apparel is informative, broken furniture and windows not encouraging and the entire pub going silent, turning around, staring at you with a 'You b'aint from round ere arr youse?' definitely a bad sign (more-or-less on a par with Alabama banjo-playing). Add to this a situation where half the clientele are twice your size and there is considerable ground for nervousness.
Happily the initial phase goes well, lodgings and refreshment are secured. (To digress the 'it comes in pints!' line from the film was priceless
). Now as you no doubt know, when one has a reasonably friendly welcome and a couple of beers, especially after a taxing journey, guards may be let down and further beverages consumed. Unfortunately Pippin 'had taken as much ale as was good for him' as the Prof so enchantingly puts it, forgetting himself which leads to much further embarassment.
After Frodo's unsuccessful attempt to cover up, the reaction of the crowd is very interesting, they assume that some magic has been done and get very suspicious. No doubt the Bree-men have survived since the 1st Age by avoiding 'meddling in the affairs of wizards' and have little desire to start now.
Now as to the crowd, the dwarves are to be expected, as Legate says probably travelling between Erebor and the Blue Mountains. The party of men from the South is more interesting (naturally South here means anything south of Bree, not Haradrim!). The squint-eyed southerner we know to be one of Saruman's spies recruited by the Nazgul, and later on there is a comment on similar figures amongst Saruman's 'halforcs' though probably he's an eighth-orc or whatever. The rest of the party claim to be 'honest' and if not a deceit, who are they? Dunlendings perhaps, though they speak the common tongue and seem more 'civilised' than the Dunlendings we meet later. Maybe Rohirrim from the far-Westfold being squeezed out by Saruman's incursions? Alternatively men from some unknown settlement of Enedwaith or Minhiriath, perhaps in the area of now-ruined Tharbad? Tricky one!
On Lebensraum Esty, I think that its a bit of a strange idea, for as far as we know Minhiriath and Enedwaith are pretty much deserted. There appears to be plenty of free land available for the taking (population densities in ME being very low after all). To speculate maybe Saruman's support has led to the Dunlendings expanding their territory and forcing out isolated older settlements of men??
On Outsider hobbits, I quite like the idea of wandering hobbitry living out in 'the wild', perhaps re-occupying some of the ancient hobbit settlements from the migration period. Gentlehobbits of the road indeed, though rude people might call them tramps!