The British Abroad: The Grand Tour in the Eighteenth Century

Travel for pleasure developed greatly in the eighteenth century, and in this scholarly, yet accessible, study, Jeremy Black examines travel on the Continent, the so-called Grand Tour. The British Abroad considers not only the standard destinations of France and Italy but also the Low Countries, Germany, Switzerland and the Balkans. It describes in detail the modes of transport, the range of accommodation, the food and drink, the pleasures and hazards of travel, ranging from sex and sensibility to debt and dysentery, as well as the effects of the French Revolution on the British tourist. In this fascinating book, Jeremy Black reveals the preoccupations, interests and attitudes of the British tourist abroad. Quoting extensively from eighteenth-century tourist correspondence, particularly hitherto uncited manuscript collections, the author conjures up a vivid and frequently amusing picture of the pleasures and predicaments experienced by British aristocrats on the Continent.