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
But the belle of the congress seems to have been the daughter of the
innkeeper at Bourgoin, the second post-house this side of Chambéry,
since there is a marginal note against her name, evidently retained
from the original, "Ista capit biscottum." This confirms the account
given of her by Lord Herbert of Cherbury in his autobiography; his
friends had told him she was the most beautiful girl they had ever
seen, so he rode over from Lyons to see her, "and after about an
hour's stay departed thence without offering so much as the least
incivility." Finally there was a widow from Tours; the one from the
"Three Kings," known as "La Gogueline"; the other widow of Tours, of
the "Three Moors," stayed at home, fearing to endanger her reputation
as the "mother of the Germans" by so long an absence. Widow Gogueline,
however, told the writer that the other was better known as their
stepmother and that there was a rhyme which ran:—
Quand vostre bourse est trop pleine
Allez aux 'Mores' en Touraine:
Je vous jure que vous serez
En peu de temps en deschargez.
It was taken for granted that the president must be an Italian; and
Francisco Marco of Venice was chosen for that geniality of his that in
years to come was to charm James Howell. He opened the proceedings with
some graceful presidential irrelevancies, commenting on the antiquity
and fame of Rothenburg and so forth, and then explained the purposes
of this Innkeepers' Congress as twofold. Its primary object, he said,
was the advancement of God's glory; secondly, the furtherance of the
interests of innkeepers and their customers, which, he added, were at
bottom identical. The committee had invited certain of the delegates
who were especially well acquainted with foreigners to explain, or
refute, what visitors found objectionable. The assembled innkeepers
could then return able to inform, each one his own countrymen, before
the latter's departure, what must be looked for in the parts he was
travelling towards, and how unavoidable, and even desirable, those
characteristics were. The president therefore called upon Messer
Bevigliano ("Chiavi d'Oro," Florence) to speak for Italy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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