Page:The grand tour in the eighteenth century by Mead, William Edward.djvu/26

 the Low Countries. But this limitation has the advantage of permitting us to view in more detail the field that we undertake to survey.

We must not forget in any part of this discussion that not merely in England but throughout Europe the tutorial system was the generally approved method for the education of young men of quality, and that what was in all essentials the grand tour was made under the guidance of a traveling tutor by the scions of noble families of France, Germany, Holland, and other countries of Europe. Travel was regarded as an essential finish of one's education, whether one traveled alone or with a tutor. The fashion of travel once established, it often tempted men, and even women, of mature years to undertake extended journeys. The itinerary, of course, varied somewhat according to personal tastes and special needs, but in general the regions visited by tourists bom on the Continent were substantially the same as those that attracted Englishmen.

We see, then, that wide travel for education or for pleasure was in no sense peculiar to Englishmen, — although as a class they were best able to afford the expense, — but rather a conformity on their part to a practice that had become traditional among the upper classes of Europe — "that noble and ancient custom of traveling, a custom so visibly tending to enrich the mind with knowledge, to rectify the judgment, to remove the prejudices of education, to compose the outward manners, and in a word to form the complete gentleman."