INTRODUCTION, CONTAINING INFORMATION WHICH MAY BE OF USE BEFORE a. Maxims and Hints for Travelling. -b. Language.· -c. Money: Circular Notes.-d. Passports.-e. Couriers. -f. Carriage.-g. Some Requisites for Travelling.-h. List of Steam-boats from England.-i. Landing on the Continent: Custom-house and Commissionaire.-k. British Custom-House :Transmission of Goods from the Continent to England.-1. A few Skeleton Tours.―m. Genealogy of the principal Reigning houses in Northern Europe. Tables of the relative Value of the Money of Germany compared with that of England and France. -n. a. MAXIMS AND HINTS FOR TRAVELLING. "TRAVEL in the younger sort is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. He that travelleth into a country, before he hath some entrance into the language, goeth to school, and not to travel. That young men travel under some tutor, or grave servant, I allow well; so that he be such a one that hath the language, and hath been in the country before; whereby he may be able to tell them what things are worthy to be seen in the country where they go, what acquaintances they are to seek, what exercises or discipline the place yieldeth; for else young men shall go hooded, and look abroad little. The things to be seen and observed are the courts of princes, especially when they give audience to ambassadors; the courts of justice while they sit and hear causes; and so of consistories ecclesiastic; the churches and monasteries, with the monuments which are therein extant; the walls and fortifications of cities and towns; and so the havens and harbours, antiquities and ruins, libraries, colleges, disputations, and lectures where any are; shipping and navies ; houses and gardens of state and pleasure near great cities; armories, arsenals, magazines, exchanges, burses, warehouses, exercises of horsemanship, fencing, training of soldiers, and the like; comedies, such whereunto the better sort of persons do resort; treasuries of jewels and robes; cabinets and rarities; and, to conclude, whatsoever is memorable in the places where they go; after all which the tutors or servants ought to make diligent inquiry. As for triumphs, masks, feasts, weddings, funerals, capital executions, and such shows, men need not to be put in mind of them; yet are they not to be neglected. If you will have a young man to put his travel into a little room, and in a short time to gather much, this you must do: first, as was said, he must have some entrance into the language before he goeth; then he must have such a servant or tutor as knoweth the country, as was likewise said let him carry with him also some card or book describing the country where he travelleth, which will be a good key to his inquiry; let him keep also a diary; let him not stay long in one city or town, more or less as the place deserveth, but not long; nay, when he stayeth in one city or town, let him change his lodging from one end and part of the town to another, which is a great adamant of acquaintance; let him sequester himself from the company of his countrymen, and diet in such places where there is good company of the nation where he travelleth; let him, upon his removes from one place to another, procure recommendation to some person of quality residing in the place whither he removeth, that he may use his favour in those things he desireth to see or know-thus he may abridge his travel with much profit. As for the acquaintance which is to be sought in travel, that which is most of all profitable is acquaintance with the secretaries and employed men of ambassadors; for so in travelling in one country he shall suck the experience of many let him also see and visit eminent persons in all kinds which are of great name abroad, that he may be able to tell how the life agreeth with the fame : for quarrels, they are with care and discretion to be avoided; they are commonly for mistresses, healths, place, and words: and let a man beware how he keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome persons; for they will engage him into their own quarrels. When a traveller returneth home, let him not leave the countries where he hath travelled altogether behind him; but maintain a correspondence by letters with those of his acquaintance which are of most worth: and let his travel appear rather in his discourse, than in his apparel or gesture; and in his discourse let him be rather advised in his answers, than forward to tell stories and let it appear that he doth not change his country manners for those of foreign parts; but only prick in some flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the customs of his own country."Lord Bacon. : "Ours is a nation of travellers; and no wonder, when the elements, air, water, fire, attend at our bidding, to transport us from shore to shore; when the ship rushes into the deep, her track the foam as of some mighty torrent; and, in three hours or less, we stand gazing and gazed at among a foreign people. None want an excuse. If rich, they go to enjoy; if poor, to retrench; if sick, to recover; if studious, to learn; if learned, to relax from their studies. But whatever they may say, whatever they may believe, they go for the most part on the same errand; nor will those who reflect think that errand an idle one. "Almost all men are over anxious. No sooner do they enter the world, than they lose that taste for natural and simple pleasures, so remarkable in early life. Every hour do they ask themselves what progress they have made in the pursuit of wealth or honour; and on they go as their fathers went before them, till, weary and sick at heart, they look back with a sigh of regret to the golden time of their childhood. 66 Now travel, and foreign travel more particularly, restores to us in a great degree what we have lost. When the anchor is heaved, we double down the leaf; and for a while at least all effort is over. The old cares are left clustering round the old objects; and at every step, as we proceed, the slightest circumstance amuses and interests. All is new and strange. We surrender ourselves, and feel once again as children. Like them, we enjoy eagerly; like them, when we fret, we fret only for the moment; and here the resemblance is very remarkable; for if a journey has its pains as well as its pleasures (and there is nothing unmixed in the world), the pains are no sooner over than they are forgotten, while the pleasures live long in the memory. "Nor is it surely without another advantage. If life be short, not so to many of us are its days and its hours. When the blood slumbers in the veins, how often do we wish that the earth would turn faster on its axis, that the sun would rise and set before it does; and, to escape from the weight of time, how many follies, how many crimes are committed! Men rush on danger, and even on death. Intrigue, play, foreign and domestic broil, such are their resources; and, when these things fail, they destroy themselves. "Now in travelling we multiply events, and innocently. We set out, as it were, on our adventures; and many are those that occur to us, morning, noon, and night. The day we come to a place which we have long heard and read of, and in Italy we do so continually, it is an era in our lives; and from that moment the very name calls up a picture. How delightfully, too, does the knowledge flow in upon us, and how fast! Would he who sat in a corner of his library, poring over his books and maps, learn more or so much in the time, as he who, with his eyes and his heart open, is receiving impressions all day long from the things themselves? How accurately do they arrange themselves in our memory, towns, rivers, mountains; and in what living colours do we recal the dresses, manners, and customs of the people! Our sight is the noblest of all our senses.- - It fills the mind with most ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues longest in action without being tired.' Our sight is on the alert when we travel; and its exercise is then so delightful, that we forget the profit in the pleasure. "Like a river, that gathers, that refines as it runs, like a spring, that takes its course through some rich vein of mineral, we improve, and imperceptibly-nor in the head only, but in the heart. Our prejudices leave us one by one. Seas and mountains are no longer our boundaries: we learn to love, and esteem, and admire, beyond them. Our benevolence extends itself with our knowledge. And must we not return better citizens than we went? For the more we become acquainted with the institutions of other countries, the more highly must we value our own."-Samuel Rogers. “The enjoyment of travelling, like other pleasures, must be purchased at some little expense; and he whose good humour can be ruffled by every petty inconvenience he may chance to encounter, had unquestionably better remain at home."-Captain Hamilton. Travelling may be said to be a state of great pleasure mixed with great annoyance; but by management the former may be much increased, and the latter proportionably diminished. "Wherever you are, it is good to fall into the customs and habits of the place; for though sometimes they may be a little inconvenient, it is generally much more so to run counter to them. Those who have their own way, never succeed, but at a much greater cost than success is worth."-The Original. "One of the greatest annoyances in travelling, is continual exposure to imposition; but this may, by good management, be frequently avoided, either altogether or in part, as by bad management it may be greatly increased. 66 My observation tells me there is no preventive against these different kinds of imposition so sure as a certain quiet composed bearing, indicative at once of self-respect and of consideration for others. I have made many experiments in the matter, under various circumstances, both in this country and abroad, and the result seems to me to be, that by such behaviour you ensure greater attention at a lower cost than by any other course; and having adopted such a course, I think that on the Continent you may still be exposed, when actually travelling, to imposition to the extent of about ten per cent. upon your expenditure, to which, for comfort's sake, and to avoid the chance of being wrong, which frequently happens in small matters, it is wise to submit, without keeping yourself in a constant fever and state of distraction from the objects only worthy of attention."-Walker's Original. The reflections of Tristram Shandy on this head are not to be surpassed :—" Yet, notwithstanding all this, and a pistol tinder-box, which was, moreover, filched from me at Sienna, and twice that I paid five pauls for two hard eggs, once at Radicofani, and a second time at Capua,—I do not think a journey through France or Italy, provided a man keep his temper all the way, so bad a thing as some people would make you believe. There must be ups and downs, or how the deuce should we get into valleys, where nature spreads so many tables of entertainment? It is nonsense to suppose they will lend you their voitures to be shaken to pieces for nothing; and unless you pay twelve sous for greasing your wheels, how should the poor peasant get butter for his bread? We really expect too much; and * Quoted in Brockedon's Road-Book. for the livre or two above par for your supper and bed, at the most they are but one shilling and ninepence halfpenny. Who would embroil their philosophy for it? For Heaven's sake and your own, pay it-pay it with both hands open!”—Sterne. "Not the least important of the requisites for a traveller, is the temper in which he should undertake to perform his journey. It is not sufficient for a pleasant excursion on the Continent that he has money enough to meet his expenses. The comfort with which an Englishman -who understands the word better than any other-is likely to enjoy an excursion in lands where the language, manners, and customs, are so different from his own, will greatly depend upon his carrying with him a ready stock of good temper and forbearance, which have more certain currency than gold in the purchase of civilities and efforts to please. A man will see more, enjoy more, and learn more, by carrying with him his head and heart in good travelling trim, than can be obtained by having his pockets full of letters of credit, without this necessary state of mind and feelings. It is a fact deeply to be regretted, that many vulgar and half-witted Englishmen think, if they leave home with money, they can command anything; that it is mean to be civil, and beneath them to feel grateful for any efforts to oblige them made by those for whose services they pay. The presumption of our countrymen is proverbial on the Continent; fortunately, the exceptions are numerous, and we are spoken of as an unaccountable people, when some men of unquestionable character and fortune display examples of suavity and true gentility which cannot be surpassed on earth: the foreigner is thus puzzled to know how to estimate our national character. It is a vulgar prejudice, that all foreigners cheat the English, and that caution is necessary to guard against the constant attempts to overreach them. That some such characters are met with cannot be denied; but those whose rapacity is thus made to characterise a class have been often created by the meanness and prejudices and thoughtless extravagance of the travellers themselves. It is a bad feeling to set out with, that you must be always on your guard. Custom has established certain charges, and any deviation from them is soon detected; but it too often happens that things are demanded by the traveller which are very expensive, or difficult to procure the charge for these is protested against as extravagant, though the injustice is entirely on the side of the grumbler. Firmness in not paying more than what is customary, unless such extraordinary trouble has been given, will always succeed; and good humour will lower a bill more readily than violence."-Brockedon. "It may not be useless to inquire why, with good hearts and generally ample means, the English should be considered neither generous nor always just; and seldom, we are afraid, agreeable. "That a permanent residence on the Continent is injurious to the English character (in every sense of the word), there cannot be a question. But there is another description of our countrymen, the |