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.
It
was generally acknowledged that comity and affability had to be fetched
from beyond the Seas, for the "meer Englishman" was defective in those
qualities. He was "rough in address, not easily acquainted, and blunt
even when he obliged."[302]
Even wise and honest Englishmen began to be ashamed of their manners and
felt they must try to be not quite so English. "Put on a decent
boldness," writes Sir Thomas Browne constantly to his son in France.
"Shun pudor rusticus." "Practise an handsome garb and civil boldness
which he that learneth not in France, travaileth in vain."[303]
But there was this difference in travel to complete the gentleman during
the reign of Charles the Second: that Italy and Germany were again safe
and thrown open to travellers, so that Holland, Germany, Italy, and
France made a magnificent round of sights; namely, the Grand Tour. It
was still usual to spend some time in Paris learning exercises and
accomplishments at an academy, but a large proportion of effort went to
driving by post-chaise through the principal towns of Europe. 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 To dress well and to be witty superseded martial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]
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