In Reply To His Father's Complaints Of His
Extravagance, He Declares:
"My promised relation of Tuscany your last
letter hath so dashed, as I am resolved not to proceed withal.
"[75] The
journal of Richard Smith, Gentleman, who accompanied Sir Edward Unton
into Italy in 1563, shows how even an ordinary man, not inclined to
writing, conscientiously tried to note the fortifications and fertility
of each province, whether it was "marvellous barren" or "stood chiefly
upon vines"; the principal commodities, and the nature of the
inhabitants: "The people (on the Rhine) are very paynefull and not so
paynefull as rude and sluttyshe." "They are well faced women in most
places of this land, and as ill-bodied."[76]
Besides writing his observations, the traveller laboured earnestly at
modern languages. Many and severe were the letters Cecil wrote to his
son Thomas in Paris on the subject of settling to his French. For
Thomas's tutor had difficulties in keeping his pupil from dog-fights,
horses and worse amusements in company of the Earl of Hertford, who was
a great hindrance to Thomas's progress in the language.[77] Francis
Davison hints that his tour was by no means a pleasure trip, what with
studying Italian, reading history and policy, observing and writing his
"Relation." Indeed, as Lipsius pointed out, it was not easy to combine
the life of a traveller with that of a scholar, "the one being of
necessitie in continual motion, care and business, the other naturally
affecting ease, safety and quietness,"[78] but still, by avoiding
Englishmen, according to our "Directions," and by doggedly conversing
with the natives, one might achieve something.
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