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
From all this one may conclude that the equivalent of four hundred
pounds a year was the minimum for respectable travelling and that the
Average Tourist would certainly need at least half as much again. But
this is assuming that all who were respectable, or above the need to
be so, paid all their own expenses, which was far from being the case.
There were plenty of rich travellers who defrayed all charges for a
large following. Landgraf Ludwig II of Hessen-Darmstadt[118] even paid
a certain knight to accompany him, six hundred florins [£600] down and
fifty florins a month, besides expenses and clothes. So when Cardinal
Luigi d'Aragona toured Europe, starting May 9, 1517, and arriving home
March 16, 1518, and spent about fifteen thousand ducats [£35,000]
meantime, in which "eating and drinking were the least costly items,"
we may conclude that the thirty-five persons he took with him, and
the forty-five he brought back, received at least expenses. Another
churchman, Johann Gottfried von Aschhausen, bishop of Würzburg, left
Strassburg in 1612 with a retinue of one hundred and thirty, twenty-one
of whom were young men of high birth. Before he passed out of Germany
this number was increased by fifty more. He was away a year in Italy,
which cost him thirty-two thousand seven hundred and fifty-four scudi
[£40,000].[119]
But since he went as the Emperor's ambassador, this is rather a fresh
example of how travelling was facilitated by embassies. For among the
advantages of various kinds that rendered accompanying the journeyings
of diplomatists the best means of seeing the world, the economical
advantages were as important as any. It by no means followed, however,
that anything but board and lodging were provided by him; in the
detailed accounts of Sir G. Chaworth regarding his special embassy
to Brussels is no mention of outlay on anything but necessaries. On
the other hand, we find another English ambassador giving one hundred
pounds apiece to the gentlemen who were to accompany him, to provide
their outfit.[120] In any case, this expedient extended only as far as
the ambassador went, a specially important limitation for Englishmen
of Queen Elizabeth's day, since she had no ambassador at Venice
throughout her reign; and even when James I sent one thither he was,
during his first term of office, the only English ambassador in Italy.
Bearing this in mind, and turning to other methods whereby the Average
Tourist from England might reduce his expenditure, we come upon what
is, perhaps, the most remarkable fact of the time in regard to the
kind, and the extent, of the usefulness with which travel was credited,
namely, that Queen Elizabeth subsidised it. It is obvious from the
life-stories of all those who served her that they were treated with
extreme stinginess and that employment by the government meant heavy
expense instead of salaries; and yet, as to travel, these are the words
of Bacon, who had excellent means of knowing the facts: "There was a
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account