News from abroad : letters written by British travellers on the Grand Tour, 1728-71 / compiled and edited by James T. Boulton, T.O. McLoughlin.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Boulton, James T., editor.

McLoughlin, T. O., editor.

Series:

Eighteenth-century worlds.

Eighteenth-century worlds

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

British--Travel--Europe--History--18th century--Sources.

British.

Travelers--Europe--Correspondence.

Travelers.

Europe--Description and travel.

Europe.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 293 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book provides a selection of private letters written to family and friends from a variety of people while they were on the Grand Tour in the eighteenth century. Although many have been published previously, this is the first time that letters of this kind have been brought together in a single volume. Readers can compare the various responses of travellers to the sights, pleasures and discomforts encountered on the journey. People of diverse backgrounds, with different expectations and interests, give personal accounts of their particular experiences of the Grand Tour. Unlike most collections of letters from the Tour, which recount the views of a single person, this selection emphasises diversity. Readers can juxtapose for example the letters of a conscientious young nobleman like Lyttelton with those of the excitable philanderer Boswell, or the well-travelled aristocratic lady, Caroline Lennox. While the travellers represented here follow much the same route via Paris, through France and across the Alps via the terrifying Mount Cenis, to Rome, in the pursuit of learning and pleasure, the Tour turns out to mean something quite different to each of them.

Contents:

'Old Style' and 'New Style' dating

Map

Introduction : the Grand Tour

The tourists and their letters

George Lyttelton (1709-73) : letters (1728-30)

Joseph Spence (1699-1768) : letters (1730-3)

James Boswell (1740-95) : letters (1764-6)

James Barry (1741-1806) : letters (1765-71)

Caroline Lennox (1723-74) : letters (1766-7)

Appendix A. The hazards of collecting art on the Grand Tour

Appendix B. Advice to travellers on the Grand Tour.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-84631-791-6

OCLC:

836872127