NOTES AND QUERIES, [iis.xn. JULY 17, 1915.
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY TRAVEL
IN EUROPE.
" I must confess that jogging along in a Passage Boat or a Stage Coach with three or four friends is but an odd way of Travelling." Prior's ' Dialogues of the Dead' (Charles V. and Clenard.)
THE seventeenth century saw a considerable increase in travel on the continent of Europe. During the sixteenth century foreign travel had been largely confined to soldiers, students, and young gentlemen of birth who travelled for political reasons, or in order to fit them- selves for the public service. Few travelled for sightseeing or pleasure. The practice of sending sons abroad as part of a general scheme of education developed slowly, and in the early part of the seventeenth century it was still something of an experiment, though it was soon to become a system. By the year 1642, when Howell published his ' Instructions for Forreine Travel,' the Grand Tour was a fully recognized in- stitution. This increased intercourse between England and the Continent produced a literature of its own. Road-books, itineraries, maps, &c., were published telling the tra- veller where to go and what to see abroad, and each returning tourist added to the list. The traveller, even now, went abroad for instruction rather than pleasure. Instruc- tion, " Matters of Traffique," and matters of State were sufficient to justify a travelling habit, but to gad abroad for pleasure was a sin against the traveller himself and against his country. " He that travells only to please his fantasie," writes old Bishop Hall,* " is like some squire of dames that doats upon every beauty and is every day love-sicke anew. These humours are fitter for controlment than observation." The aim of the traveller should be to observe, to see men and sights, and to return and communicate his experiences to his stay-at-home countrymen. .
As might be expected from this, the con- temporary travel-books are full of informa- tion upon subjects which no student of the period can afford to neglect. Travel in seventeenth-century Europe was still a slow and solemn thing. Communication was difficult, not so much on account of obstacles encountered, as because conveniences Were few. Questions of transport and accommo- dation had constantly to be solved, and it is
' Quo Vadis : a censure of Travel,' sec. viii.
with some of the difficulties which beset
the traveller 250 years ago that the following
notes are concerned. '
The Low Countries at this time were known to most people by sight or relation. Travellers were pleased with the excellence and frequency of the towns. According to Burton there were generally three towns at least to one of ours, and those far more populous and rich. a Howell could write in 1622 that there was no part of Europe so haunted with foreigners as the Netherlands, and that at exchange time one could hear as many as seven or eight sorts of tongues spoken upon the Bourses. b
It was easy to get there from, England. The traveller could go from Yarmouth to Rotterdam, or from Gravesend to Flushing or Brill, c and the rates were moderate. The fare from Gravesend to Flushing at a slightly earlier period than the present one was 6s. 8c/., (1 and the tourist once landed in Holland, the facilities for travelling were excellent. Boats were sailed or towed by horses from, place to place along the canals or cuts, and in many places regular services were organized with fares fixed by the local authorities. 6 The boats left at stated times, and a bell was rung to announce their departure. As many as 30 and 40 passengers were carried, and the average speed seems to have been three miles anhour. f The boatmen were apt to get drunk on occasions and to land their passengers in the water, and a starting horse might endanger you to two deaths at once, " breaking of your neck and drowning " ; but for comfort, speed, and cheapness the system Was hard to beat. One horse could draw in a boat a far greater load than in a cart, and the rates were correspondingly low. From Amsterdam to Haarlem along the nine miles of canal a covered barge plied daily from five in the morning until six at
a 'Anatomy of Melancholy' (ed. Shilleto), i. 98.
Cf. Fuller, 'Holy and Profane State ' (1841), 180:
"If thou will see much in little travel in the Low
Countries."
b HowelPs 'Letters' (ed. Jacobs), 128.
c Ed. Browne's 'Travels' (1687), 91.
d 'Cal. State Papers, Foreign, 1581-2,' 43. "The fare from Dover to Calais in 1648-9 was 5s. Harleiaii MS. 943, fo. 1 (Rich. Symon's Note- Books) ; Ed. Browne, Letter, Sir T. Browne's ' Works ' (1835), i. 57.
c Fynes Moryson, ' Itinerary ' (Glasgow, 1908), i. 430; iii. 469; Reresby, 'Travels' (1904), 124; Ed. Browne's 'Travels' (1687), 101.
f W. Montague, Delights of Holland,' 1696, 9.
- 'A Late Voyage to Holland,' 1691 ('Harleian
Miscellany,' ii. 595). Much of this treatise is " lifted " word for word from Owen Feltham's * Brief Character of the Low Countries.'
