It Was Medicine That Chiefly Interested Nicholas Ferrar, Than Whom No
Traveller For Study's Sake Was Ever More Devoted To The Task Of
Self-Improvement.
At about the same time that the second Earl of
Chesterfield was fighting duels at the academy of Monsieur
De Veau,
Nicholas Ferrar, a grave boy, came from Cambridge to Leipsic and "set
himself laboriously to study the originals of the city, the nature of
the government, the humors and inclinations of the people." Finding the
university too distracting, he retired to a neighbouring village to read
the choicest writers on German affairs. He served an apprenticeship of a
fortnight at every German trade. He could maintain a dialogue with an
architect in his own phrases; he could talk with mariners in their sea
terms. Removing to Padua, he attained in a very short time a marvellous
proficiency in physic, while his conversation and his charm ennobled the
evil students of Padua.[300]
* * * * *
CHAPTER VI
THE GRAND TOUR
After the Restoration the idea of polishing one's parts by foreign
travel received fresh impetus. The friends of Charles the Second, having
spent so much of their time abroad, naturally brought back to England a
renewed infusion of continental ideals. France was more than ever the
arbiter for the "gentry and civiller sort of mankind." Travellers such
as Evelyn, who deplored the English gentry's "solitary and unactive
lives in the country," the "haughty and boorish Englishman," and the
"constrained address of our sullen Nation,"[301] made an impression.
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