ABSTRACT
In 1751, William Bentinck entrusted his nephew, James Hamilton, to the care of Robert Keith, Britain’s ambassador at Berlin: ‘he is 21 years old, is an only son, hot as fire, without experience of the world.’ Keith, like other career diplomats, was accustomed to receiving such visitors because Britain’s embassies had been welcoming travellers since the sixteenth century. It was part of a minister’s mandate as the King’s representative to dispense hospitality to fellow subjects on behalf of the Crown, and by c.1630 embassies were the launch pads from which young gentleman of noble or gentry extraction were propelled into the court and noble circles of European society.1 Diplomats were the mediators and, on occasion, instructors, through which these introductions took place, and therefore part of the educational process in politesse and good breeding that was integral to the tour. As such, they made good commentators on its pros and cons, many reflections on which are to be found in their private papers.2
