Grand tour

This collection of manuscript, visual and printed works allows scholars to explore the history of British travel in Europe between 1550 and 1850 from every angle.|bIt includes letters, diaries and journals, account books, printed guidebooks, published travel writing, paintings and sketches, architectural drawings and maps. Many sources are from private or neglected archives. It also provides a source of information about daily life in the eighteenth century, highlighting such everyday issues as transportation, money, communications, food and drink, health and sex. The material covers European political and religious life, British diplomacy, life at court, social customs on the Continent, and material culture, taste and collecting. There is a wealth of detail about cities such as Paris, Geneva, Venice, Rome, Florence and Naples of interest to both urban and architectural historians.