Page:The grand tour in the eighteenth century by Mead, William Edward.djvu/50

 that had marked Spanish administration in the sixteenth century had given place to pretentious weakness; and to the increase of the power of Spain in any part of the world England in the eighteenth century was sternly opposed, as she had been in the days of the Invincible Armada.

With Portugal, on the other hand, the relations of England were intimate and amicable. A good part of the country was dominated by English capital, and the commerce of her greatest ports was wholly in the hands of the English. The very food and clothing of the people came in large measure from England and in English bottoms; on the other hand, the wine imported from Lisbon and Oporto into England, on the easy terms of the Methuen Treaty, and freely consumed in every well-to-do English household, made gout a disease almost inevitable to an Englishman of recognized social position.

In a country like Portugal, where English interests were paramount, there were naturally a good many representatives of English families not actively engaged in trade, but attracted by the genial climate and the beauty of the country. The lack of roads and accommodations for tourists compelled strangers for the most part, however, to sojourn in one of the coast towns, such as Oporto, Lisbon, Cintra, since touring in the interior for mere pleasure was hardly practicable. At all events, a voyage to Portugal was not counted as an essential part of the conventional grand tour, but rather as an interesting excursion for one who sought a change of scene and air.