THE GRAND TOUR (1768-69) 109 



architecture, and full of the most beautiful pictures and marbles.' 

 It was only to be visited with a permit from the owner, and it was 

 a great favour of the painter to get them one. De Saussure 

 mentions a portrait of Pope which has enabled me (by the 

 friendly aid of Mr. Austin Dobson) to identify the house as in all 

 probability Caen Wood House, between Hampstead andHighgate, 

 then the property of Lord Mansfield. The diary continues : 



' 22nd. 



' To Tissot's shop, where I saw Graphometres he called theodo- 

 lites, and other instruments, all very dear, but very good and well 

 finished. 



' Started in the afternoon for York. Four horses in the carriage, 

 and our two servants on horseback, my wife but middlingly pleased 

 to go, and I surprised, almost astounded, at this unforeseen and hastily 

 undertaken journey.' 



The journey proved less formidable than it had seemed in 

 prospect. The first night was spent at Stevenage. At Stamford 

 the host of the inn, forewarned by Mr. Earle, was waiting to take 

 the travellers to Burghley, where they were received by domestics 

 carrying silver staves, and, despite de Saussure 's bad English, 

 the housekeeper made herself very agreeable. They admired 

 chiefly the pictures and the kitchen. 1 Next day, starting from 

 Grantham, they reached York, having made the journey from 

 London at the rate of seven and a half miles an hour. De 

 Saussure is warm in praise of the roads : 



' It is delightful to roll rapidly on such roads, seldom straight, 

 through beautiful country, rich and well cultivated. The peasantry 

 are better dressed than in France or Switzerland, but less well off ; 

 their cottages picturesque but wretched and white-washed.' 



At York, after a first night in a crowded inn, they found lodg- 

 ings, and were speedily introduced to the fine society collected for 

 the races : Sir George Savile, Lord Rockingham, recently Prime 

 Minister, and his wife, Lord Scarborough, Lord John Cavendish, 

 and a host of others. The races, the horses and jockeys, the 



1 Gilpin, who visited Burghley in 1776, writes : ' We must not leave this 

 grand house without looking into the kitchen, which is a noble room and decorated 

 with the ensign memorial of hospitality, an immense carcase of beef, well painted.' 

 Observations relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty made in the year 1776 in 

 several 'parts of Great Britain, particularly the Highlands of Scotland. 



