THE TOURIST AND THE TUTOR
and, to say truth, the compound of booby and petit-maitre makes up a very odd sort of animal."[1]
Extraordinary as English tourists often appeared to their own countrymen, they seemed still more so to foreigners, to whom they were a perpetual puzzle. England was notable all over Europe for producing odd types of travelers — men who were counted peculiar even at home, and whose strongly marked idiosyncrasies naturally made a lasting impression upon the Continent. The composite portrait often drawn as representing the typical Englishman is doubtless inaccurate as picturing any individual traveler, but it is, on the whole, more true than false, and would never have been suggested by the representatives of any other nation.
As might have been expected, the Englishman was in general not an easy traveler. To difficulties that no one could escape he added others by his lack of adaptability to unfamiliar conditions. Notwithstanding the ostentatious profusion of most wealthy tourists, there were many tourists of the type of Dr. Smollett, exacting and yet penurious, who were in hot water from the day they landed on the Continent until they were safely back in England. Such travelers, wherever they went, loudly voiced their discontent with the country and the people, and commonly found no lack of material for criticism. The Englishman at home was so accustomed to speak plainly that he could not be expected to bridle his tongue while abroad. Fortunately for him, most of his criticism of governments and of restrictive regulations of various sorts was imparted to his fellow countrymen in their native tongue and was unintelligible to any one besides them. "You English," remarks Cogan, "are supposed to think, but you are universally accused of keeping all your thoughts to yourselves! — A Frenchman will touch upon all the affairs of every court in Europe, and all the fashions in each court, before an Englishman can resolve to enquire what is the news of the day."[2] In general an English traveler presented his least attractive side to strangers. He felt it hardly worth
127
