Page:The grand tour in the eighteenth century by Mead, William Edward.djvu/158

 abroad and needed advice or entertainment or letters of introduction.

But, however well introduced, Englishmen in Italy who really wished to know the Italian people were hampered by the conditions under which Italian society lived, and rarely saw Italian life from the Italian point of view. In some communities, notably Rome, the barriers that excluded strangers were not rigidly maintained, but even in favorable cases the tourist was treated as a tourist and not as an Italian. Moreover, tourists who carried abroad a fixed prejudice against foreigners were unlikely to go out of their way to seek society or to welcome it when thrust upon them. Hence, the English tourist, as a rule, gave his main attention to the things he could see, and regarded the inhabitants as a negligible quantity. People he could see anywhere, even at home. In fact, an Englishman often hesitated to take notice of his own countrymen that he casually met abroad, either for fear of being embarrassed by their company later or merely because of constitutional indifference. Smollett cites two striking instances. An Englishman had hired a felucca and a servant to go from Antibes to Leghorn. "This evening [March 20, 1765] he came ashore to stretch his legs, and took a solitary walk on the beach, avoiding us with great care, although he knew we were English: his valet, who was abundantly communicative, told my servant that in coming through France his master had travelled three days in company with two other English gentlemen, whom he met upon the road, and in all that time he never spoke a word to either: yet in other respects he was a good man, mild, charitable, and humane. This is a character truly British." In another case, "There was an English gentleman laid up at Auxerre with a broken arm, to whom I sent my compliments, with offers of service ; but his servant told my man that he did not choose to see any company, and had no occasion for my service. This sort of reserve seems peculiar to the English disposition. When two natives of any other country chance to meet abroad, they run into each other's arms