New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-12
CRITICISM
AND BOOK NEWS
The First History of the Grand Tour at Its
Height-Mr. Flaggs Portraits and
Caricatures- Holiday Books.

selves ." As a matter Of fact. NJ. Mead
informs Us it was in the eighteenth
century that the Continental car!catdre
o. the Eugiishman had its birth.
Though there are backward glimpses
here at the grand tour in the preced-
ing century, the book is mainly con-
cerned with the custom as IL was at
tn period Of its highest development
in the eighteenth. Travel had become
comparatively comfortable and safe;
means Of communication were annie,
inns had much improved, though they
still left much to be desired-in short,
the Continent had learned to provide
Tor the constant come and go Of for
eie visitors. The societies Of Paris.
Rome, Vienna and. to a lesser extent,
Brussels were truly international;
chain of letters of Introduction from
capital to capital was easily obtaina-
Bile provided one started with the right
credentials from home. So far as a
cosmopolitan social polish was con
cercei. the grand tour certainly full
filed its purpose. Its cultural results,
as has already been observed, were un-
certain, dependent upon both the in
c,inatiors of the young traveller and
the capacities Of his tutor. Low COM
pany could be found even more easily
than high: opportunities for debauch-
cry, gambling and drinking were end
less; and there was the lure OF the
fake antique. Mr. Mead publishes a
contemporary cartoon Of such treas
ures from Foote's comedy, Taste:
"head from Herculsneum, whether
Jupiter Tonans or Venus Of Paphos,
doubted; the foot, with the toes e.
tire. of Juno Lacina; the hand of the
Apollo of Delphos; the calf of the leg
Of the infant Hercules; and the cadu-
ceus of Mercurius infernalis."
The book is restricted to the coun-
tries most often included in the grand
tour-France, Italy and the Low Coun-
tries, with Germany as a far less fire.
uuented fourth. Switzerland was stu
diously avoided on the way from
France TO Italy; the recognition OF the
beauties of mountain scenery had not
yet dawned. There are Introductory
chapters on the social and economic
conditions of the countries Ceait with,
accounts of their means Of transporta-
ton, the condition or their roads, and
the accommodation offered in their
inns, which. with occasional exceptions,
were primitive and worse, as is proved
by the directions and warnings given
in the travel books of the time. Smol-
lett, especially, is eloquent on the sub
ject of the disregard of cleanliness and
sanitation he found everywhere. Travel
By inland water was much more gem
eral than il is now in Europe, and, Of
course. the perfection of this means Of
locomotion was found IN the Low Coun-
tries. The "trekschuit" plying daily
between Client and Bruges seems TO
have been a marvel Of comfort, accord
ing to a contemporary account:
The most remarkable boat of the
kind in all Europe; for 1t is per-
feet tavern divided into several
apartments, with very good ordi-
nary dinner of six or seven dishes,
and all sorts of wines at moderate
prices. In winter they have fires
in their chimneys, and the motion
of the vessel is so gentle that a
person is all the way as if he were
in a house.
This first history of the grand tour
is likely to prove the definitive one as
we'll. ii is, moreover, a curious book
in the light il throws on the manners,
customs and morals of eighteentn-cen
tury Continental Europe. On closing II
one wonders if the time is not yet ripe
for a history of the grand tour OF
nineteenth-century Americans. The in
tensely educative period OF our EURO
pean travel is closed.