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THE INNER LIVES OF EARLY MODERN TRAVEL

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 September 2018

MARK R. F. WILLIAMS
MARK R. F. WILLIAMS*
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
*
School of History, Archaeology, and Religion, Cardiff University, John Percival Building, Colum Road, Cardiff, cf10 3eu[email protected]
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Abstract

This article assesses the role of memory, interiority, and intergenerational relations in the framing of early modern experiences and narratives of travel. It adopts as its focus three generations of the Clerk family of Penicuik, Scotland, whose travels through Europe from the mid-seventeenth century onward proved formative in the creation of varied ‘cosmopolitan’ stances within the family. While such widely studied practices as the ‘Grand Tour’ have drawn on discourses of encounter and cultural engagement within the broader narratives of the ‘long’ eighteenth century, this article reveals a family made deeply anxious by the consequences of travel, both during and after the act. Using diaries, manuscript correspondence, memoirs, and material objects, this article reveals the many ways in which travel was fashioned before, during, and long after it was undertaken. By shifting focus away from the act of travel itself and towards its subsequent afterlives, it explores the ways in which these individuals internalized what they experienced in the course of travel, how they reconciled it with the familiar, quotidian world to which they returned, and how the ‘cosmopolitan’ worldviews they brought home were made to inform the generations that followed.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 349 - 373
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

The author wishes to thank Richard Ansell and Keir Waddington for their comments on earlier drafts of this article. Valuable comments were also provided by John Gallagher, Sarah Goldsmith, and Eva Johanna Holmberg at the ‘Cultures and Practices of Travel’ Conference at the University of Leicester. The author is also grateful to Sir Robert Clerk of Penicuik, Bt, for permission to publish material from the Clerk Papers at the National Records of Scotland.

References

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3 NRSCP, GD18/2090, fo. 129[v].

4 NRSCP, GD18/2090, fo. 125[r].

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29 Clerk to Lady Pittendrum, 20 Sept. 1645, Paris, in ‘Letter-book’, p. 42.

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31 Clerk to Pittendrum, 3 Nov. 1645, Paris, in ‘Letter-book’, p. 44; Clerk to Janet Gray, 3 Nov. 1645, Paris, in ‘Letter-book’, pp. 44–5.

32 Clerk to Janet Gray, 3 Nov. 1645, Paris, in ‘Letter-book’, p. 47.

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36 A stance suggested in Games, Web of empire, ch. 3.

37 NRSCP, GD18/2090, fo. 135[v].

38 Gray, ed., Memoirs, p. 8 incl. marginal note by Clerk.

39 Ansell, ‘Educational travel’, passim. On the terminology of the ‘Grand Tour’, see Sweet, Rosemary, Goldsmith, Sarah, and Verhoeven, Gerrit, ‘Introduction’, in Sweet, Goldsmith, and Verhoeven, eds., Beyond the Grand Tour: northern metropolises and early modern travel behaviour (London, 2017), pp. 6–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40 NRSCP, GD18/5177/1, James Clerk to John Clerk II (hereafter ‘JCII’), 12 May 1676, Edinburgh; NRSCP, GD18/5177/2, James Clerk to JCII, 6 July 1676, London.

41 NRSCP, GD18/2567.

42 NRSCP, GD18/5175, letters of Elisabeth to JCII; Wilcox, David, ‘Scottish late seventeenth-century clothing: some context for the Barrock Estate finds’, Costume, 50 (2016), esp. pp. 165–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

43 NRSCP, GD18/2090, fo. 2[v].

44 NRSCP, GD18/2090, fos. 1[r]–2[v].

45 Gray, ed., Memoirs, p. 8.

46 Todd, Margo, ‘Puritan self-fashioning: the diary of Samuel Ward’, Journal of British Studies, 31 (1992), pp. 236–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

47 NRSCP, GD18/5177/34, letter of James Clerk to JCII, 20 Jan. 1679.

48 Ibid. On Jansenism, see Richardt, Aimé, Le jansénisme: de Jansénius à la mort de Louis XIV (Paris, 2011)Google Scholar; Maire, Catherine, De la cause de Dieu à la caused la nation: le jansénisme aux XVIIIe siècle (Paris, 1998)Google Scholar.

49 NRSCP, GD18/5177/36. [Responses by John Clerk to James Clerk.]

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51 NRSCP, GD18/5179/1, James Clerk to JCII, 26 Oct. 1680, Paris; GD18/5179/2, JCII to James Clerk, 1 Nov. 1680, [Edinburgh].

52 Mijers, Esther, ‘Scotland, the Dutch Republic and the Union: commerce and cosmopolitanism’, in Macinnes, Alan and Hamilton, Douglas J., eds., Jacobitism, Enlightenment and empire, 1680–1820 (London, 2014), p. 97Google Scholar; Mijers, Esther, ‘News from the Republick of Letters’: Scottish students, Charles Mackie, and the United Provinces, 1650–1750 (Leiden, 2012), ch. 2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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54 Gray, ed., Memoirs, p. 12.

55 For the role of tears in early modern masculinity, see Capp, Bernard, ‘“Jesus wept” but did the Englishman? Masculinity and emotion in early modern England’, Past and Present, 224 (2014), pp. 75–108CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

56 NRSCP, GD18/5194/11, ‘Covenant’; also transcribed in van Strien, Kees and Ashmann, Margreet, ‘Scottish law students in Leiden at the end of the seventeenth century: the correspondence of John Clerk, 1694–1697’ (hereafter ‘Leiden correspondence’), Lias, 19 (1992), p. 305Google Scholar.

57 NRSCP, GD18/5194/11, JCII to John Clerk III (hereafter ‘JCIII’), 13 Sept. 1694, ‘Queans Ferrie’.

58 NRSCP, GD18/5197/3, JCIII to JCII, 14 Mar. 1695, Leiden.

59 NRSCP, GD18/5194/16, JCII to JCIII, [12 July 1695, Edinburgh].

60 Brown, Iain Gordon, ‘Prelude and pattern: the remarkable Grand Tour of Sir John Clerk of Penicuik (1676–1755) in the 1690s’, in Borley, Lester, ed., The Grand Tour and its influence on architecture, artistic taste and patronage (London, 2008), pp. 44–71, esp. p. 52Google Scholar.

61 Mijers, Scottish students, pp. 66–7; Otterspeer, Willem, De vesting van de macht: De Leidse Universiteit, 1673–1775 (Amsterdam, 2002)Google Scholar.

62 On ‘colleges’, see ‘Leiden correspondence’, p. 289.

63 NRSCP, GD18/5197/5, JCIII to JCII, 4 July, ‘Leyden’; Brundin, Abigail and Roberts, Dunstan, ‘Book-buying and the Grand Tour: the Italian books at Belton House in Lincolnshire’, The Library, 16 (2015), pp. 51–79CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 NRSCP, GD18/5197/9, JCIII to JCII, 3 Jan. 1696, Leiden.

65 NRSCP, GD18/5197/6, JCIII to JCII, 26 Sept. 1695, Leiden.

66 NRSCP, GD18/5194/11, JCII to JCIII, 13 Sept. 1694, ‘Queans ferrie’; Mijers, Scottish students, p. 51.

67 NRSCP, GD18/5194/14, JCII to JCIII, 25 Feb. 1695, ‘Newbiging’.

68 For foreign language instruction, see Gallagher, John, ‘“Ungratefull Tuscans”: teaching Italian in early modern England’, The Italianist, 36 (2016), esp. pp. 403–4CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gallagher, John, Learning languages in early modern England (Oxford, forthcoming), ch. 4Google Scholar. I am grateful to John Gallagher for sharing a manuscript copy of this book.

69 NRSCP, GD18/5194/11, JCII to JCIII, 13 Sept. 1694, ‘Queans ferrie’; Mijers, Scottish students, p. 51.

70 NRSCP, GD18/5197/2, JCIII to JCII, ‘Leyden the 28 of Feb’, 1695.

71 NRSCP, GD18/5197/3, JCIII to JCII, 14 Mar. 1695, ‘Leyden’.

72 NRSCP, GD18/5194/16, JCII to JCIII, 12 July 1695, Edinburgh, in ‘Leiden correspondence’, p. 15.

73 Ibid.

74 NRSCP, GD18/5197/6, JCIII to JCII, 26 Sept. 1695, ‘Leyden’; GD18/5194/19, JCII to JCIII, 16 Oct. 1695, Edinburgh; GD18/5197/9, JCIII to JCII, 3 Jan. 1696, Leyden.

75 NRSCP, GD18/5197/9.

76 Sweet, Cities and the Grand Tour, p. 18.

77 NRSCP, GD18/5197/10, JCIII to JCII, 21 ‘Februarie’ 1696, Leyden.

78 Ibid.

79 Claydon, Europe and the making of England, pp. 28–44.

80 Ibid.; Burnet, Gilbert, Some letters containing an account of what seemed most remarkable in travelling through Switzerland, Italy, etc. (London, 1696)Google Scholar.

81 NRSCP, GD18/5194/17.

82 JCII to JCIII, [Edinburgh, 2 Mar. 1696], in ‘Leiden correspondence’, p. 39.

83 Ibid., p. 40.

84 Ibid., p. 42.

85 Ibid., p. 42. Sweet, Rosemary, ‘The changing view of Rome in the long eighteenth century’, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 33 (2010), pp. 145–64, esp. pp. 151–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

86 NRSCP, GD18/5197/12, JCIII to JCII, 8 May 1696, Leyden.

87 NRSCP, GD18/5197/16, JCIII to JCII, 26 Oct. 1696, Leyden.

88 NRSCP, GD18/5197/17, JCIII to Forbes, 20 Nov. 1696, Leyden.

89 NRSCP, GD18/5207/1, JCII to JCIII, 7 Jan. 1697, [Edinburgh].

90 NRSCP, GD18/5197/22, JCIII to JCII, 16 Aug. 1697, Vienna.

91 Recently explored in Liesbeth Corens, Kate Peters, and Alexandra Walsham, eds., ‘The social history of the archive: record-keeping in early modern Europe’, Past and Present: Supplement 11 (2016).

92 Sweet, Cities and the Grand Tour, pp. 19–20; Ansell, ‘Educational travel’, passim.

93 NRSCP, GD18/5202/45, ‘Conto dal Sign: Cavaleri Clerk’; GD18/5202/65, Browne to JCIII, 3 Aug. 1700, ‘Roma’; Welch, Evelyn, ‘Scented gloves and perfumed buttons: smelling things in Renaissance Italy’, in Mirabella, Bella, ed., Ornamentalism: accessories in Renaissance Europe (Ann Arbor, MI, 2012), pp. 13–39Google Scholar.

94 NRSCP, GD18/5202/8, ‘Giacomo Kremberg’ to JCIII, 26 Dec. 1697, London; for Kremberg, see Davidson, Peter, ‘Leo Scotiae Irritatus: Herman Boerhaave and John Clerk of Penicuik’, in Barfoot, C. C. and Todd, Richard, eds., The great emporium: the Low Countries as a cultural crossroads in the Renaissance and the eighteenth century (Amsterdam, 1992), p. 168Google Scholar; Kooimans, Luc, Het Orakel. De man die de geneeskunde opnieuw uitvond: Herman Boerhaave 1669–1738 (Amsterdam, 2011)Google Scholar.

95 NRSCP, GD18/5202/28, Bassani to JCIII, ‘12 Aprile 1698’; GD18/5202/12, ‘Preston’ to JCIII, 3 Jan. 1698, Edinburgh.

96 NRSCP, GD18/5202/33 [List of Payments] ‘1 September 1698’.

97 NRSCP, GD18/5202/11 [John Paterson?] to JCIII, 1 Jan. 1698.

98 NRSCP, GD18/5202/13, Cosimo Clerk to ‘My dearest Jack’ [JCIII], 31 Jan. 1698, ‘Roma’; GD18/5202/51, Caprara to JCIII, 17 ‘Genov:’ 1699, ‘Roma’.

99 NRSCP, GD18/5202/47 [Supplication], ‘Rome 1698’.

100 Cohen, ‘The Grand Tour’, p. 132.

101 NRSCP, GD18/4536, John Paterson to JCIII, 6 May [1696?], Rome. For Misson, see Richard Ansell, ‘Reading and writing travels: Maximilien Misson, Samuel Waring, and the afterlives of European voyages, c. 1687–1714’, English Historical Review (forthcoming). I am grateful to the author for permitting me to read this article in advance of publication.

102 Ansell, ‘Reading and writing travels’, pp. 10–11. Clerk can only have loosely followed Misson's travel itinerary, as the ordering of his travels suggests a more improvised route: compare Brown, ‘Prelude and pattern’, p. 57, with Misson, Maximilien, A new voyage to Italy (London, 1695), passimGoogle Scholar.

103 NRSCP, GD18/5208/3, JCIII to JCII, 1 Mar. 1698/9, Florence.

104 Gray, ed., Memoirs, pp. 24–7.

105 Ibid., pp. 29–30; NRSCP, GD18/5202/18, Cosimo Clerk to JCIII, 6 Mar. 1698, ‘Pisa from the Court’; GD18/5202/19, Cosimo Clerk to JCIII, 25 Mar. 1698, Florence.

106 NRSCP, GD18/5202/42, JCIII to Cosimo III de’ Medici [undated].

107 Gray, ed., Memoirs, pp. 26 and 28.

108 NRSCP, GD18/2095, rear cover.

109 NRSCP, GD18/2095, pp. 225–6.

110 Ibid., fos. 6v, 7r, 8r. This section is incomplete and unpaginated. References have been given from beginning of unpaginated section as above.

111 Ibid., fo. 10v. Sexual mores while travelling, while heterodox, have received remarkably little attention, as noted in Sarah Goldsmith, Danger, risk and masculinity on the eighteenth-century Grand Tour (forthcoming), ch. 1. I am grateful to the author for access to this chapter.

112 NRSCP, GD18/5202/43, JCIII to Cosimo de’ Medici [undated], ‘il desiderio che V[ost]ra Altezza Serenissima si degna d'havere per la salute della mia povera anima’.

113 Ibid., pp. 331–2.

114 Goldsmith, ‘Dogs, servants and masculinities’, passim.

115 NRSCP, GD18/5207/4, JCIII to JCII, 16 Aug. 1698, Rome.

116 NRSCP, GD18/5207/5, JCII to JCIII, 13 Sept. 1698, Edinburgh.

117 NRSCP, GD18/5207/2, JCIII to JCII, 21 Feb. 1698/9, Paris; GD18/5202/53, Cosimo Clerk to JCIII, 27 Jan. 1699, Rome.

118 NRSCP, GD18/5207/10, JCII to JCIII, 18 Aug. 1699, Edinburgh.

119 NRSCP, GD18/5207/11, JCIII to JCII, 19 Sept. 1699, Rotterdam.

120 Gray, ed., Memoirs, p. 36.

121 NRSCP, GD18/5202/60, Kremberg to JCIII, ‘2 Maart 1699’, Amsterdam. ‘So het moogelijk is, soo bidde UED voor mij te koopen, de Boeken op Luijt te speelen van Mons Gautier…Ik sal het hier weer betaalen.’ Kremberg was moving on 1 May from the Herengracht to the Keizersgracht.

122 NRSCP, GD18/5202/57, Matthijs van den Brandt to JCIII, ‘5 Februarij 1699’, ‘Leijde’; GD18/5202/61, van den Brandt to JCIII, ‘20 Maart 1699’, [Leiden].

123 Gray, ed., Memoirs, p. 236–40, ‘Note B’.

124 NRSCP, GD18/2090, fo. 125[v].

125 NRSCP, GD18/3122, passim.

126 Walsham, ‘The Reformation of the generations’, p. 120.