ABSTRACT
Such was the disrepute into which the universities had fallen in the eighteenth century, that many of the wealthy classes preferred to rely on a combination of private tutors and a Grand Tour for the education of their sons. The universities seemed to be ‘Schools of Vice’ as Lady Leicester of Holkham Hall Norfolk put it and foreign travel under the guidance of a tutor seemed a much better way of finishing off a young man’s education. The benefits which it was hoped a foreign tour would give were related to the future employments of a young gentleman. If he was to inherit great landed estates, take a lead in social life, or serve his country in politics, diplomacy or war, then residence in France and Italy could, it was hoped, give him several advantages. He could learn to speak French as a native and French was the language of diplomacy and polite society. In France too he could improve his horsemanship and learn those skills of fencing, dancing and deportment which a rustic English upbringing so often failed to give. In Italy he could acquire a taste in the fine arts and practise the social graces in a succession of parties and balls.
