Page:The grand tour in the eighteenth century by Mead, William Edward.djvu/146

 the ordinary English intelligence. Even Lord Houghton, whose advantages were exceptional, wrote as late as 1871 to his son: "It is as well that you should begin that crack-jaw German at school, as I suspect the difficulty I have had in mastering it (though I went to the University of Bonn after leaving Cambridge) comes from my never having been well grounded in its detestable grammar and absurd constructions." And Lord Houghton's experience was typical. Making the largest allowance we can for individual mastery of foreign tongues by eighteenth-century Englishmen, we may suspect that, as is yet the case, multitudes returned home from their travels with hardly enough of any language besides their own to enable them to order a dinner or to pay for it without being fleeced.

As already observed, the ostensible purpose of much of the travel on the Continent was educational. And this purpose played so large a part in shaping most of the tours that we must consider in some detail the favorite eighteenth-century plan of sending out a young man to travel for a few years with a tutor from whom he was supposed to receive instruction. This practice was not new, nor was it peculiar to England, but had long been in vogue among wealthy families on the Continent. A description of the system as it should be at its best appears in Francesco Soave's moral tale, "Il conte d'Orenge." In this the author recounts how a nobleman's son, who had been reared in an exemplary way, set out on his travels at the age of twenty, under the direction of a wise governor. He was provided with all the recommendations that were necessary, and his tour included Italy and the then chief countries of Europe. Accompanied by his instructor he journeyed from one point to another, became familiar with various places, with their position and appearance, with the natural products of each country, with the most precious works of art, with the most renowned men of letters and artists of every