THE GRAND TOUR IN 1814.f
THERE is no pretence to political or historical import about the diary kept by Mr. John Mayne in the tour he made
through France and Italy after the abdication of Napoleon and before the "Hundred Days." Much of the Journal, indeed, is comprised of remarks upon the comfort or other- wise of the beds in the various inns at which he stopped, and be harps persistently upon the fact that he was charged "English prices" throughout the greater part of his trip, and did not get any approach to English comfort in return. It is, for the most part, a faithful and not very interesting account of the regulation sights seen in the regulation way, and even the interval of almost a century does not invest it with much originality. The diarist, however, was an Irishman, the son of Mr. Justice Mayne of the Court of King's Bench in Dublin, and a more than occasional gleam of his native wit struggles through the guide-book conventionality that characterises most of the writing. He turns a phrase neatly now and then, as when he says that in the matter of bills the traveller who is ignorant of the language must "repose himself upon the conscience of his landlord, and that is no easy pillow." A little later a bright sidelight is cast upon the old coaching days by the statement that "there are two chief merits in a finished postillion: the cracking of his whip, and the number of buttons on the skirts of his coat, which we counted as many as forty-six "; and a trenchant criticism of French vocalisation is thrown out in passing in the remark that at a certain cafe "there was also a young woman who sang, but in the most French style—all roaring in the throat." It may be added that Lord Mount Edgcumbe —the "Old Amateur "—was equally uncomplimentary in his references to French opera singers of this period. The Paris of 1814 would appear to have had at least one point in common with the Paris of to-day, for we read that "the utmost agility is requisite to save one's life from the furious drivers that infest the streets. They have no compassion for those on foot, but clash along shouting Garre ! garre !' always close to the houses." There is much talk in our own time of the bad form that is displayed at opera and concert by people who arrive late, or converse while the performance is in progress, but the evil has not reached the pitch described in one of Mr. Mayne's best sketches, that of the Opera House at Milan:—
" The back of the pit," he says, "is an open space without seats, where men meet as on Exchange, and transact business. Ladies habitually receive visits in their boxes, and play cards and
drink coffee. Finally there are in the fourth tier three parts where five or six boxes are thrown into one, and fitted up
• Fresh Leaves and Green Pastures. By the Author of "Leaves from a Life." London : Eveleigh Nadi. [108. net.] t The Journal of John Magise, during a Tour of the Continent upon its Reopening the drpolaon, 1814. Edited by John Mayne Collins. London : John
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and lighted as a coffee-house. These are filled with officers and others, who drink, play and talk., often to be heard through the whole house."
This very insular visitor to the Continent seems to have bad two enthusiasms in life, one for music, and the other for optical instruments. To these he added a fondness for outspoken art criticism, and the three mingle curiously with the journal of his travels.
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