Since It
Was A Great Deal Easier To Go Sight-Seeing Than To Study Governments,
Write "Relations," Or Even To
Manage "The Great Horse," the Grand Tour,
as a form of education, gained upon society, especially at the end of
The century, when even the academies were too much of an exertion for
the beaux to attend. To dress well and to be witty superseded martial
ambitions. Gentlemen could no longer endure the violence of the Great
Horse, but were carried about in sedan chairs. To drive through Europe
in a coach suited them very well. It was a form of travel which likewise
suited country squires' sons; for with the spread of the fashion from
Court to country not only great noblemen and "utter gallants" but plain
country gentlemen aspired to send their sons on a quest for the "bel
air." Their idea of how this was to be done being rather vague, the
services of a governor were hired, who found that the easiest way of
dealing with Tony Lumpkin was to convey him over an impressive number of
miles and keep him interested with staring at buildings. The whole aim
of travel was sadly degenerated from Elizabethan times. Cynical parents
like Francis Osborn had not the slightest faith in its good effects, but
recommended it solely because it was the fashion. "Some to starch a more
serious face upon wanton, impertinent, and dear bought Vanity, cry up
'Travel' as 'the best Accomplisher of Youth and Gentry,' tho' detected
by Experience in the generality, for 'the greatest Debaucher' ... yet
since it advanceth Opinion in the World, without which Desert is useful
to none but itself (Scholars and Travellers being cried up for the
highest Graduates in the most universal Judgments) I am not much
unwilling to give way to Peregrine motion for a time."[304]
In short, the object of the Grand Tour was to see and be seen. The very
term seems to be an extension of usage from the word employed to
describe driving in one's coach about the principal streets of a town.
The Duchess of Newcastle, in 1656, wrote from Antwerp: "I go sometimes
abroad, seldom to visit, but only in my coach about the town, or about
some of the streets, which we call here a tour, where all the chief of
the town go to see and be seen, likewise all strangers of what quality
soever."[305] Evelyn, in 1652, contrasted "making the Tour" with the
proper sort of industrious travel; "But he that (instead of making the
Tour, as they call it) or, as a late Embassador of ours facetiously, but
sharply reproached, (like a Goose swimms down the River) having mastered
the Tongue, frequented the Court, looked into their customes, been
present at their pleadings, observed their Military Discipline,
contracted acquaintance with their Learned men, studied their Arts, and
is familiar with their dispositions, makes this accompt of his
time."[306] And in another place he says: "It is written of Ulysses,
that hee saw many Cities indeed, but withall his Remarks of mens Manners
and Customs, was ever preferred to his counting Steeples, and making
Tours: It is this Ethicall and Morall part of Travel, which embellisheth
a Gentleman."[307] In 1670, Richard Lassels uses the term "Grand Tour"
for the first time in an English book for travellers: "The Grand Tour of
France and the Giro of Italy."[308] Of course this is only specialized
usage of the idea "round" which had long been current, and which still
survives in our phrase, "make the round trip." "The Spanish
ambassadors," writes Dudley Carleton in 1610, "are at the next Spring to
make a perfect round."[309]
In the age of the Grand Tour the governor becomes an important figure.
There had always been governors, to be sure, from the very beginnings of
travel to become a complete person. Their arguments with fathers as to
the expenses of the tour, and their laments at the disagreeable conduct
of their charges echo from generation to generation. Now it is Mr
Windebanke complaining to Cecil that his son "has utterly no mind nor
disposition in him to apply any learning, according to the end you sent
him for hither," being carried away by an "inordinate affection towards
a young gentlewoman abiding near Paris."[310] Now it is Mr Smythe
desiring to be called home unless the allowance for himself and Francis
Davison can be increased. "For Mr Francis is now a man, and your son,
and not so easily ruled touching expenses, about which we have had more
brabblements than I will speak of."[311] Bacon's essay "Of Travel" in
1625 is the first to advise the use of a governor;[312] but governors
rose to their full authority only in the middle of the century, when it
was the custom to send boys abroad very young, at fourteen or fifteen,
because at that age they were more malleable for instruction in foreign
languages. At that age they could not generally be trusted by
themselves, especially after the protests of a century against the moral
and religious dangers of foreign travel. How fearful parents were of the
hazards of travel, and what a responsibility it was for a governor to
undertake one of these precious charges, may be gathered from this
letter by Lady Lowther to Joseph Williamson, he who afterwards rose to
be Secretary of State: "I doubt not but you have received my son,"
writes the mother, "with our letters entreating your care for improving
all good in him and restraining all irregularities, as he is the hope
and only stem of his father. I implore the Almighty, and labour for all
means conducible thereto; I conceive your discreet government and
admonition may much promote it. Tell me whether you find him tractable
or disorderly: his disposition is good, and his natural parts
reasonable, but his acquirements meaner than I desire: however he is
young enough yet to learn, and by study may recover, if not recall, his
lost time.
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