Touring in 1600: A Study in the Development of Travel as a Means of EducationBates, E. S. (Ernest Stuart)
History
Touring in 1600: A Study in the Development of Travel as a Means of Education
Bates, E. S. (Ernest Stuart)
Europe -- Description and travel; Europe -- Social life and customs; Travel -- History
The congress was held at Rothenburg on the Tauber, not so very far
from Nuremberg, that town being chosen because no tourist was ever
known to go there, any more then than now; and consequently none was
better adapted to prevent more than one side of the question being
heard,—which, as every one knows, means life or death to a congress.
London was represented by Paolo Lucchese, and four Englishmen were also
present, the four who saw most of foreigners who had been to England
and of Englishmen who had been abroad: namely, William Cooke of Douay,
the host of the "Golden Head" at Calais, another of Dieppe whose name
and whose sign are alike illegible, and lastly the notorious Zacharias
of Genoa, who told how he had been wrecked in West Indian seas and
had swum twenty-two leagues with the ship's carpenter, pushing the
latter's tool-chest before him, and how the tinder-box which he put in
his hair did not even get wet; all just as he told it to Evelyn years
afterwards, until every one got tired of him. The only Scot was Miltoun
of the "Croix de Fer" at Paris (Rue St. Martin).
From France the delegates were Robert Buquet of Rouen, Du Peyrat of
Loudun, Parracan of Arles, whose inn had no sign because his wine was
so good that it needed none, Christopher Prezel of the "Lion d'Or de la
Lanterne" of Lyons—but a full list is, after all, of no great interest.
It is sufficient to say, to give some idea of the value that attaches
to the report of the proceedings, that almost every delegate was a
host in himself. For the rest, genealogists in the employ of American
millionaires can have access direct to the manuscript; such things are
best left in private hands.
The ladies, however, must not be omitted. Old Donna Justina of Venice
was there, in spite of its being as much as thirty years earlier that
De Thou had been recommended to her as the only innkeeper of the city
in whose house none but respectable women were to be found. Berenguela
de Rebolledo likewise attended, lady-in-waiting at an inn at Madrid,
cheerful, inquisitive, and a flirt, just as Pablos de Segovia knew
her, with a bit of a lisp, scared of mice, vain of her hands, and
a blush-rose and gloire-de-Dijon complexion. Then there was Marie
Beltram, who ran the "venta" the other side of Yrun, and the girl
harpist who played at the inns at Brussels, of whom the appropriate
remark to make was to quote,—
Haec habiles agili praetentat pollice chordas:
Tam doctas quis non possit amare manus?
Two elderly parties were likewise present who, thirty years earlier,
had been the two pretty daughters of the one-eyed host of the "Red
Lion" at Dordrecht, the same host who warned Van Buchell, the
antiquary, when a youngster, against French girls. They were given,
he said, to making advances; once one kissed him, and for a long time
afterwards he did not think he could live without her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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