27 April 2024

British travellers on Grand Tour: C18th

The term Grand Tour first appeared in the Voyage or a Com­pleat Journey through Italy 1670, by Fr­enchman Rich­ard Lassels. Pub­lish­ed in Lond­on, the book became a guide for sch­olars, artists and art col­l­ect­ors who were planning a trip to Italy. Lassels added an important motive for parents who might have been worried about sending their sons (rarely daughters) away: “Tr­avelling pres­er­v­es my young nob­le­man from surfeiting of his pa­r­ents, and weans him from the dan­g­erous fondness of his moth­er. It teaches him wholesome hard­ship; to lie in beds that are none of his ac­quain­tance; to speak to men he never saw bef­ore; top travel in the morn­ing bef­ore day, and in the evening after the day”. But he also warn­ed that Italy is able to “depr­ave the best natures if one will aban­don himself to plea­sure and become a prey to dissol­ute courses and wanton­ness”. Lassels praised the value of stoic endurance whilst abroad.

The Grand Tour was fascinating to me for distinct reasons:
A] Young Grand Tour­ists brought back new, refined tastes in paint­ing, ar­ch­i­tect­ure, furniture, gard­ens and music.
B] Our students loved to read beautiful books like Grand Tour: Lure of Italy in the C18th, by Wilton & Bignamini.
C] My own gap year abroad (pre-university) was a special year of maturity and independence – Lassels was right!

By 1690 the upper classes knew that the orig­ins of true nob­il­ity lay in the pursuit of wisdom and virtue, not in war. Ed­ucat­ion was necess­ary to create a gov­ern­­ing class; educ­a­t­ion that included gramm­ar, geometry and class­ics, plus rel­igion, the arts, languages and man­ners. Once formal education was completed, the young man’s infor­m­al ed­uc­ation was polished by, and integrated with travel. And since only Italy and France had ancient glory, The Grand Tour to Italy and France replaced univ­ersity life as the final freedom al­lowed bef­ore settling down to marriage and running the family estate.

cultivated Grand Tourists painted by Pompeo Batoni, 
Rome, 1774

Only the oldest son could inherit the parents’ estate. So many not-first-born young noblemen saw their future among the growing number of permanent dip­lomats at for­eign courts. Would-be British dip­lo­m­ats were well advis­ed to be familiar with the Continent and to speak French fluently.

Now a new book has been published which I really enjoyed. News From Abroad: Letters Written by British Travellers on the Grand Tour 1728–71, was edited by James T Boulton and T.O McLoughlin and published by Liverpool UP in 2013.

The book acknowledged that Grand Tour was a rite of passage for much of Britain’s upper class during the very late C17th and throu­gh­out the C18th. In News from Abroad, the editors gathered letters from five different travellers as they left Britain en route to Rome, via Paris and the Alps. Since there was no rush to get back home to earn a living, these fortunate young people had the luxury of exploring contemporary European life as it existed in the C18th, AND of analysing history and ancient and Renaissance art.

The first decently sized book to bring diverse letter-writers togeth­er into a single site, News from Abroad is an excellent collection of prim­ary sources that bloggers, teachers and historically-minded trav­ellers rarely get to read. George Lyttelton’s letters were written 1728–30; he came from a fam­ily of aristocrats who wanted George to complete his education abroad. Joseph Spence, tutor to a young noble trav­eller, was almost Lyttel­ton’s contemporary: 1730–3.

The last 3 of the book’s stars travelled and wrote the letters 35 years later: James Boswell 1764–6, James Barry 1765–71 and Caroline Lennox 1766–7. The party only ended at the time of the Napoleonic Wars across Eur­ope; parents seemed unwilling to allow their precious sons to travel abroad.

Although some of these private letters have been published previous­ly, I presume they were originally intended only for the eyes of their families back in Britain. Perhaps that made for more honesty and less self-censorship eg when the original budget ran out, young travellers whined and wheedled extra money out of their long suffering parents.

Another thing.... I would have chosen more broadly amongst the Grand Tourists. James Barry was certainly interested in his own art but I’d have loved to read about would-be professional painters, architects and landscape designers for whom Rome represented the last word in design classicism. I wonder if Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leic­ester, left any letters; apparently he spent the equivalent of Australia’s national budget on art during his long tour: 1712-8.

Sir Francis Bacon had recommended in Of Travel 1625 that the things to be ob­serv­ed were the courts of pr­inces, courts of just­ice, chur­ch­es and monas­t­eries, the walls and fort­if­i­c­ations of towns, as well as gar­d­ens, houses, armour­ies, ars­en­als, treas­ur­ies of jewels, robes, cab­in­ets and rarit­ies. Did the five young travellers in this book pay any attention to Bacon’s list of Must Dos?

Of course not. Young people, a long way from home, were possibly not going to be interested in landscape garden design or royal robes. Sometimes they were interested in chasing skirt or meeting ambass­adors or climbing into Vesuvius. Often times they were overwhelmed by the discomforts and dangers they met en route – poor food, dangerous mountain passes, poorly repaired roads, casual VD and broken bones. And occasionally they really wanted to collect treasures for their future homes, once they were married – books, furniture and art objects.

The Grand Tour
by Mike Rendell, 2022

The virtues of travel were great, but they were not a tot­al blessing. Ev­en in 1735 people were already debat­ing whether it was in the in­terest of Brit­ish cul­ture to be so eagerly adopting the taste of another nat­ion. And for the parents, the downside was snobbishness in the returned young­sters. Called Macaroni by fath­ers who no longer recognised their sons, some lads were overdressed and dandified. But we could not expect the young letter writers to make long term judgements on the basis of their own experiences - that was the job for later historians. The two appendices were very useful: A The Hazards of Collecting Renaissance Art on the Grand Tour and B: Advice to Travellers on the Grand Tour. Thanks Boulton & McLoughlin!




31 comments:

  1. Sounds interesting, if I could take my own grand tour it would be of Australia's outback

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  2. Sydney TravellerApril 27, 2024 3:11 pm

    I went with a friend on a grand tour across Europe in 1963, but we saw no courts of pr­inces, courts of just­ice, chur­ch­es or monas­t­eries. We slept in tents in summer and caravans in winter, and had the best time of our lives. The year certainly weaned us from the dan­g­erous fondness of our moth­ers.

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  3. Hello Hels, One happy result of the Grand Tour was that England now is the best source for Classical and Egyptian antiquities, as well as ready-made souvenirs of the Grand Tour, such as marble or cork models of Classical buildings. I agree that post-college/university is a perfect time to have some like adventure. Mine was working in the early musical instruments department of the MFA in Boston. That you for the book recommendations--I have added all of them to my list.
    --Jim

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  4. The only "grand tour" I ever got was the very quick walk around the factory where I had applied for a job. The person giving the tour was known to reject any applicants who couldn't keep up with his fast pace.
    I have heard of these European Grand Tours though, they seem like a good way for the younger sons to find other interests.

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  5. An interesting post. I have seen numerous collections in stately homes that were a product of a Grand Tour.

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  6. The stately homes of England are filled with the treasures of Grand Tours. That seemed to be all success of the tour was judged upon.

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  7. Jo-Anne

    the aim of the Grand Tour was to allow young, single men to see more of the world than they had at home and school, to mature out of the glare of their parents' control, and to learn foreign languages, history and art.

    You could do that easily, even though you are not 20, not from a noble family and not male :)

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  8. The Grand Tour was also a way to occupy dissolute sons and remove them from the perils of London particularly and the risk of bringing shame (or more shame) on the family.

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  9. Sydney Traveller

    you enjoyed the same as most young Australians back then: a grand tour without parents and with not much money. Even if you reported weekly to your parents, there was no email and snail mail took a fortnight for you to receive an answer to your aerogramme home.

    I hope you kept photos from each country you visited.

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  10. Parnassus

    it was a brilliant concept, at least for those families who could afford to go for a year or more without any financial support from their adult children. I would have been delighted to pay for my sons (and daughters?) and their support staff.

    Only one thing concerned me: did the countries that provided Classical and Egyptian antiquities, paintings etc know they were losing their precious national treasures?

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  11. River

    quite right. For boys who had enjoyed a very controlled upbringing back in Britain, they _really_ looked forward to find other interests and skills abroad. Imagine seeing Italian architecture for the first time, French literature, Greek food or Spanish horses.

    No wonder many of the returnees wanted to become permanent dip­lomats at the for­eign courts they first saw on their grand tour.

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  12. Fun60

    I too have seen gorgeous collections in stately homes. I suppose if the parents had to spend HEAPS of money indulging their young sons, they might have hoped to gain some paintings, precious gold or porcelain treasures in return.

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  13. Rachel

    I measured the success by the number of mature, learned and grateful sons who returned to Britain ready to get married, take over the family estate and establish an important career.

    Of course that didn't always happen so perhaps fabulous 17th century Italian paintings made the family feel a bit happier.

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  14. jabblog

    although that sounds awful, it probably made perfect sense to send difficult sons a] to a distant boarding school and b] on the grand tour to distant Europe. If sons drank heavily, slept with any girls in London or carelessly gambled, the family would have been very anxious about their own reputation. However I would have felt very sorry for the Italian etc girls.

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  15. Now it is hard to do grand tour. Everything requires fees for entry and new restrictions to protect over tourism

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  16. roentare

    agreed. There were always problems that tourists had to be aware of: some 18th century roads were risky to negotiate, scarcity of post horses, impossible weather, dangerous rivers and snowy mountains, and sinking boats at sea.

    Nowadays we have to worry about wars, Brexit, quarantines etc

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  17. Thorough and interesting post!
    I think it was the best thing for a young person to do a Grand Tour!
    After finishing the studies to come into contact with another culture.
    Now to do something like that one has to be almost rich!!
    Thenk you Hels!

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  18. Yes, the young men had to come from very comfortable families. But it was well worth every penny, since the men learned more in a year or two of travel than they learned in all their earlier years at home. What a great opportunity to learn foreign languages, study art and architecture, and perhaps prepare for future careers.

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  19. I love the idea of a grand tour and a gap year. Sadly, I had neither growing up, but I am trying to make up for it now, even if I am no longer all that young. Grin. Happy end of April to you.

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  20. I read "News from Abroad 1728-71" because Amazon said that people of diverse backgrounds, with different interests, gave personal accounts of their experiences of the Grand Tour. These contributors included women, aristocrats, scholars and people who went to different countries.
    By James T Boulton and T O McLoughlin, 2012.

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  21. A fascinating glimpse into the Grand Tour! It's interesting to see how it wasn't just about sightseeing but a whole educational and social experience. Overall, this is a great post that makes history come alive. Thanks for sharing!

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  22. I'd love to go on a "grand tour". They sound terrific, and aban­don myself to plea­sure and some, dare I say it, wanton­ness!! :)

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  23. Boa tarde, um excelente domingo e um bom início de semana. Gostaria de conhecer outros lugares do Brasil e do Mundo. Quem sabe um dia? Grande abraço carioca.

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  24. Amazon

    thank you. Having a wider range of experiences and responses is very important.

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  25. Pradeep

    yes sir! It was never just about sightseeing but a whole educational and social experience. There has always been mere sightseeing, before and after the Grand Tour. However this was very different!

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  26. Liam

    plea­sure and wanton­ness were always part of the maturing process while travelling across Europe in the 18th century. The young men took paid staff with them from their parents home, to organise their requirements when in Europe.
    So you are following a fine example.

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  27. Luiz

    allow as much time as you can organise so that the only aeroplane flights will be leaving home and returning home, 1 or 2 years later. Once you are on the new continent, all travel should be slow and full of landscape-viewing: train, bike, car, horse etc. No rush!

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  28. Given that I only work to travel, I enjoyed this post a lot! Something about the privileged young men returning more snobbish and arrogant than ever strikes a nerve though. It's a theme that continues to this day - the very wealthy have no self knowledge of their privilege

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  29. Mandy

    Privileged young men were probably arrogant even before they went on their tour. Especially if they had very wealthy parents, preferably a family title and a top quality school. At least nowadays the aristocracy seem a bit more modest about their privilege.

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  30. So, the Grand Tour had its issues, short term and longer term it seems. It's interesting that the so called tour continued well into the 20th century. I think conditions were much better for travellers than in the eighteenth century.

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  31. Andrew

    The Grand Tour really did have very serious issues back in the 18th century, and parents were never confident that their sons would come home alive and perfectly intact, physically and financially. However until the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars stopped most foreign travel in c1803, the pleasures and gains of the Grand Tour were far greater than the risks. At least for the young men, if not their mothers.

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