Chesterfield was
thinking of the France of his youth; but France had changed.
In 1765,
Horace Walpole was depressed by the solemnity and austerity of French
society. Their style of conversation was serious, pedantic, and seldom
animated except by a dispute on some philosophic subject.[375] In fact,
Chesterfield was admiring the France of Louis the Fourteenth long after
"Le Soleil" had set, and the country was sombre. It was the eve of the
day when France was to imitate the democratic ideals of England.
England, at last, instead of being on the outskirts of civilization, was
coming to be the most powerful, respected, and enlightened country in
Europe. When that day dawned, Englishmen no longer sought the Continent
in the spirit of the Elizabethans - the spirit which aimed at being "A
citizen of the whole world."
* * * * *
CHAPTER VII
THE DECADENCE OF THE GRAND TOUR.
During the several generations when the Stuarts communicated their love
of France to the aristocracy of England, there was, as we might suppose,
a steady undercurrent of protest against this Gallic influence. A
returning traveller would be pursued by the rabble of London, who,
sighting his French periwig and foreign gestures, would pelt his coach
with gutter-dirt, squibs, roots and rams-horns, and run after it
shouting "French Dogs! French Dogs! A Mounser! A Mounser!"[376] Between
the courtiers and the true-born Englishman there was no great sympathy
in the matter of foreign culture. The courtiers too often took towards
deep-seated English customs the irreverent attitude of their master,
Charles II. - known to remark that it was the roast beef and reading of
the holy Scriptures that caused the noted sadness of the English.[377]
The true-born Englishman retorted with many a jibe at the "gay, giddy,
brisk, insipid fool," who thought of nothing but clothes and garnitures,
despised roast beef, and called his old friends ruffians and rustics; or
at the rake who "has not been come from France above three months and
here he has debauch'd four women and fought five duels." The playwrights
could always secure an audience by a skilful portrait of an "English
Mounsieur" such as Sir Fopling Flutter, who "went to Paris a plain
bashful English Blockhead and returned a fine undertaking French
Fop."[378]
There had always been a protest against foreign influence, but in the
eighteenth century one cannot fail to notice a stronger and more
contemptuous attitude than ever before. England was feeling her power.
War with France sharpened the shafts of satire, and every victory over
the French increased a strong insular patriotism in all classes. Foote
declared residence in Paris a necessary part of every man of fashion's
education, because it "Gives 'em a relish for their own domestic
happiness and a proper veneration for their own national
liberties."[379] His Epilogue to The Englishman in Paris commends the
prudence of British forefathers who
"Scorned to truck for base unmanly arts,
Their native plainness and their honest hearts."[380]
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