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
Hentzner, in his preface, acknowledges that the troubles of a traveller
are great and finds only two arguments to countervail them: that man is
born unto trouble, and that Abraham had orders to travel direct from
God. Abraham, however, did not have to cross the Channel. Otherwise,
perhaps, the prospect of sacrificing himself as well as his only son
Isaac, would have brought to light a flaw in his obedience. There
was, it is true, the chance of crossing from Dover to Calais in four
hours, but the experiences of Princess Cecilia, already related, were
no less likely. In 1610 two Ambassadors waited at Calais fourteen
days before they could make a start, and making a start by no means
implied arriving—at least, not at Dover; one gentleman, after a most
unhappy night, found himself at Nieuport next morning and had to wait
three days before another try could be made. Yet another, who had
already sailed from Boulogne after having waited six hours for the
tide, accomplished two leagues, been becalmed for nine or ten hours,
returned to Boulogne by rowing-boat, and posted to Calais, found no
wind to take him across there and had to charter another rowing-boat
at sunset on Friday, reaching Dover on Monday between four and five
A. M. It was naturally a rare occurrence to go the whole distance by
small boat, because of the risk. Lord Herbert of Cherbury was the most
noteworthy exception; after he had made three attempts from Brill
and covered distances which varied from just outside the harbour to
half-way, arriving at Brill again, however, each time, he went by land
to Calais, where the sea was so dangerous that no one would venture,
no one except one old fisherman, whose boat, he himself owned, was one
of the worst in the harbour, but, on the other hand, he did not mind
whether he lived or died.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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