Page:The grand tour in the eighteenth century by Mead, William Edward.djvu/30

 him. In this way we may be able in some degree to estimate the value of the grand tour as a means of culture.

Besides all this, it is worth while to note that the eighteenth century, particularly during the first half, was a time of depression in poetry and art and architecture, and that for a time it appeared to be at a standstill in all moral and religious progress. But there was, nevertheless, in almost every field of human activity a new spirit stirring which wrought an amazing change before the century came to an end.

In view of the immensity of the field, it is obvious that to trace in any considerable detail the differences between the old time and the new would involve a review of the social history of Europe from the time of Louis XIV to the present, and to do that here is, of course, out of the question. We can, however, glance at the three or four countries that most attracted the English tourist and form some conception of the general conditions under which one traveled in the eighteenth century.

Of all these countries we must in some measure reshape our modern notions if we are to understand what the grand tour a hundred and fifty years ago really meant. Obviously, each country presented some features not exactly paralleled elsewhere, and the most characteristic of these we must try to realize. But we must remember that, owing to the complexity and variety of the facts and the frequent changes in details of administration, a general statement must ignore many minor details, and in some cases must be taken as a mere approximation to the truth.

As a preliminary to our later study we may well glance for a moment at eighteenth-century England, and then at the countries commonly visited on the grand tour. Until the last decade or two England has been a synonym for conservatism. But how different in a thousand ways is the England of our time from that of a century and a half