Plust à Dieu qu'il vous donnast la pensée de retourner à Blois. Les jours me semblent des années tant il m'ennuye d'ettre icy comme dans un desert de solitude; car quoy est cequi me peut desormais plaire dans cette ville, comment est ceque cette lumiere de la vie, et cette respiration de l'air me peuvent-elle estre agreeables, puisqu'y ayant perdu cequi m'estoit le plus au Monde et qu'il m'interesse plus q'une seule personne dont je suis privé de l'honneur de sa presence, au reste, graces a Dieu, nous nous porte fort bien et pourcequi et de moy je vous asseure que je ne manqueray jamais à mon devoir, c'espourquoy finissant je demeure et demeureray aternellement,
Votre tres humble et fidel fils,
Edmond Verney.
Sir Ralph had also in his charge two girls, his young cousins, whom their mother had entrusted to him: "Sweet nephew, I have after A long debate with my selfe sent my tow gurles where I shall desier youre care of them, that they may be tought what is fite for them as the reding of the french tong, and to singe, and to dance and to right and to playe of the gittar."[887]
Sir Ralph regarded France as "the fittest place to breed up youth." SIR RALPH VERNEY'S VIEWS"I wish peace in France for my children's sake," he wrote to M. Du Val, a French tutor. After bringing up his own family there, he would have liked to send his grandchildren to France with a sober and discreet governor, rather than to any school in England; but his son Edmund thought the advantage of learning to speak French fluently did not compensate for the loss of English public school life, which he himself had never enjoyed. Sir Ralph soon became a versatile source of information to parents desiring details of the cost of living and education in France. He considered £200 a year a proper allowance for an English youth to be boarded in a good French family, and that homes in which there were children were best, on account of the continual prattle of the young inmates. The families of French pastors were naturally preferred; and as the pastors were in the habit of taking French pupils also,[888] no doubt the young English boys found suitable companions.
The Protestant schools,[889] established wherever possible by the French reformers in the vicinity of their churches, were also in favour with English parents. These schools, in which the subjects usually taught were reading, writing, arithmetic, and the catechism, were for obvious reasons looked on with suspicion by the Government; one by one they were dispersed, especially when the feeling against the Protestants became more acute towards the middle of the seventeenth century. Thus the schools of Rouen were closed in 1640; and shortly afterwards Sir Ralph Verney wrote, in reply to an inquiry about a school, that Rouen is a very unfit place, as no Protestant masters are allowed to keep school there; moreover, living is dear in the town, and the accent of the inhabitants bad. In some cases, when the schools had been closed or converted into Jesuit establishments, the ejected schoolmasters gave private lessons, or received a few pensionnaires in their homes. Even this was forbidden in 1683. And two years later the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes dealt the severest blow of all.
Regarding the Protestant Academies,[890] Sir Ralph sent the following report to his friends in England: "There are divers Universities at Sedan, Saumur, Geneva and other fine places, as I am told at noe unreasonable rate, and not only Protestant schoolmasters, but whole colleges of Protestants."[891] Many young Englishmen were sent to one or other of these towns, either to attend lectures at the Academies, or, more often, to study French and the "exercises" privately, in a Protestant atmosphere. Sir Orlando Bridgman, a friend of Sir Ralph Verney, after letting his son study with two other English boys under a M. Cordell at Blois, intended to send him either to Saumur or Poitiers, then to Paris, and so to the Inns of Court,[892] and Sir Thomas Cotton sent his sons to Saumur to perfect themselves in French.[893] In the middle of the seventeenth century, Sir Joseph Williamson, the future statesman and diplomat of the reign of Charles II., was living at Saumur with several young Englishmen in his care.[894] After graduating at Oxford, he had left England in the capacity of tutor to a young man of quality, possibly one of the sons of the Marquis of Ormonde. At Saumur, Williamson kept a book of notes relating to the studies of his pupils and containing the letters which he wrote to their parents in answer to inquiries concerning their progress. He and his pupils lived en pension in a private house in the town, "with very civil company,"—"the best way to get the language which is much desired." On the whole Williamson's pupils do not seem to have made as rapid progress as either he himself or their parents desired. One anxious father writes to ask Williamson to let his son practise writing French daily; another exhorts his son to devote himself seriously to learning French by reading good authors and conversing. The Academies of Montauban and Sedan, though they never attained a popularity equal to that of Saumur, were not neglected, and attracted many foreign students. The Academy at Montauban was moved to Puy Laurens in 1659, where it remained until its suppression at the time of the Revocation. In 1678 Henry Savile, English ambassador at Paris, informed his brother, Lord Halifax, that there are only two Protestant Universities in France, TRAVELLERS AT FRENCH UNIVERSITIESat Saumur and Puy Laurens, and that of these Saumur is beyond dispute the better.[895] From this we see that these two Academies were then the best known;[896] no doubt the rest, which had never been quite so popular, were much enfeebled by the hostile edicts which preceded the Revocation. Lord Halifax at first intended to send his sons to the College at Chastillon. Savile, however, stopped them when they arrived at Paris, as he had heard that the only teaching given at the College was reading, writing, and the catechism—the curriculum of the Protestant schools. In the end the boys were sent with their governor to the Academy at Geneva. On their return to England in 1681, one of them went to complete his education at the University and the other to the academy which was opened that year by the Frenchman M. Foubert, who had set up as a teacher of the "exercises" in London.
Other travellers spent some time at one of the French Universities. The University of Paris usually counted a considerable number of English among its students, and Clarendon tells us that those who have been there "mingle gracefully in all companies." The Universities of Bordeaux, Poitiers, and Montpellier were also favourite resorts. Montpellier particularly, with its "gentle salutiferous air," attracted those suffering from the "national complaint."[897] When Will Allestry was there in 1668, he spent the greater part of his time learning French, and what leisure he had he employed in studying the Institutions.[898] Orleans, famous for the study of law, was also much patronised. The custom of studying in French Universities, however, did not meet with general approval in England. Sir Balthazar Gerbier pronounced it "no less than abusing the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the famous free schools of this realme to withdraw from them the sons of Noble families and those that are lovers of vertue." The same opinion is voiced by Samuel Penton, Master of Exeter Hall, Oxford, who did not omit even the Protestant Academies from his condemnation. "The strangeness of New Faces, Language, Manners and Studies may prove perhaps uneasie, and then their great want of discipline to confine him to Prayers, Exercises and Meals is dangerous: all he will have to do is to keep in touch with a Lecturer, and what is learned from him, most young Gentlemen are so civil as to leave behind them when they return."[899]
The governors who usually accompanied young travellers, especially those of high birth, were not infrequently Frenchmen. We are told that it was a rare sight to see a young English nobleman at a foreign court with a governor of his own nation,[900] though some preferred an English governor, and cautioned travellers against foreign tutors. Samuel Penton warns us that if the young traveller is committed, for cheapness or curiosity, to a foreigner instead of an English governor, "there are some in the world who without a fee will tell you what that is like to come to."[901] One of the English governors, J. Gailhard, who was tutor abroad to several of the nobility and gentry, including the Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Hastings, and Sir Thomas Grosvenor, lays down "a method of travel" which is of special interest, as it is the one which he followed with his own pupils.[902] His view was that, if possible, the traveller should have some knowledge of French before setting out on his travels. The first thing he should do on arriving at Paris is to go to the famous Protestant temple at Charenton, and there give thanks for his safe journey so far—whether he understand French or not. He will do well to make but a short stay at Paris, where his progress will be hindered by the great number of his countrymen there. The best places to reside in are the towns along the valley of the Loire, where there are plenty of good masters to be had. Perhaps Angers is the best. The student is further urged to keep a diary, and talk as much as possible—"with speaking we learn to speak." The masters for the riding and fencing exercises, dancing and music, are to be looked upon as so many additional language teachers. Although "of ten words he could not speak two right, yet let him not be ashamed and discouraged at it: for it is not to be expected he should be a Master before he hath been a scholar." The language master should teach his pupil to read, write and spell correctly, and to speak properly. GUIDE-BOOKS FOR TRAVELLERSThe material for reading must be carefully chosen; romances, such as those of Scudéry, are often dangerous; it is better to use books which give instruction in such subjects as history, morality, and politics. Every evening there should be a repetition of what has been learnt during the day. Gailhard also draws attention to the necessity of respecting and observing the customs of the places visited: "Here in England, the manner is for the master of the House to go in before a stranger, this would pass for a great incivility in France; so here the Lady or Mistress of the House uses to sit at the upper end of the Table, which in France is given to Strangers. So if we be many in a company we make no scruple to drink all out of a glass, or a Tankard, which they are not used to do, and if a servant would offer to give them a glass before it was washed every time they drink, they would be angry at it. Here when a man is sneezing we say nothing to him, but there they would look upon't as a want of civility. Again, we in England upon a journey, use to ask one another how we do, but in France they do no such thing—amongst them that question would answer to this, 'what aileth you that you look so ill?'"
The attitude of the French teachers in England towards the foreign tour gradually changed. They no longer saw in it a rival institution, depriving them of many of their pupils, but, on the contrary, a means of giving the finishing touch to the results of their own efforts in England. All strongly advise their pupils to go to France, and most of them add directions for travel in their text-books.[903] Mauger's dialogues include "most exact instructions for travel, very useful and necessary for all gentlemen that intend to travel into France," and Lainé's grammar is "enriched with choice dialogues useful for persons of quality that intend to travel into France, leading them as by the hand to the most noted and principal places of the kingdom."
As the tour in France increased in popularity, the directions furnished by French teachers were supplemented by guide-books properly so called; towards the end of the seventeenth century books such as The Present State of France and The Description of Paris were to be had at every bookseller's in London.[904] As early as 1604 Sir Robert Dallington had written his View of France, in which he refers to a book called the French Guide, which "undertaketh to resemble eche countrie to some other thing, as Bretaigne to a horse-shoe, Picardy to a Neat's toung etc., which are but idle and disproportioned comparisons." Peter Heylyn, chaplain at the Courts of Charles I. and Charles II., was the author of two popular books of this type: France painted to the Life by a learned and impartial Hand,[905] and A Full relation of two Journeys, the one in the mainland of France, the other in some of the adjacent Islands.[906] Some of these guides are descriptions of the country, others are relations of journeys made there; to the first category belongs A Description of France in its several governments by J. S. Gent (1692), and to the second, A Journey to Paris in the year 1698 by Dr. Martin Lister. Some include advice as to the course of study to be followed. And as Italy was still frequently included in the tour, travellers were sometimes supplied with information regarding that country.[907]