THE GRAND TOUR (1768-69) m 



and drawings by Holbein of the Court of Fra^ois Premier, which 

 were shown by a ' concierge of a fine figure, very intelligent, and 

 speaking Latin.' 



The next object was Duncombe Park, built by Vanbrugh, the 

 seat of the Earl of Feversham, where they were invited to lunch 

 and stay to dinner, though they saw nothing of the owner, who 

 with his ladies spied them from a balcony overlooking the vestibule. 

 Here they admired a Titian ' Venus and Adonis/ ' almost too 

 beautiful.' Through rain, which prevented their seeing much of 

 the park, they drove on to Helmsley, where de Saussure notes, 

 ' My farthest north, 54 16".' Here they parted with their kind 

 guide, with promises to meet again at Geneva. Between Helmsley 

 and Thirsk they crossed the moors, the barrenness of which was 

 noted. Their naked slopes reminded (we are surprised to hear) 

 de Saussure of his own country : possibly he had in his mind 

 the heights of the Jura. ' Sportsmen,' he relates, * go and live 

 on them in tents and pursue a kind of pheasant only to be found 

 there.' Does he mean black game or grouse ? Despite his early 

 shooting parties round the Reposoir, ornithology does not seem 

 to have been one of our philosopher's strong points. 



The tourists next viewed Studley and Fountains Abbey. De 

 Saussure, who shows far more enthusiasm for sylvan scenery, 

 gardens, and classic summer-houses than for serious architecture, 

 goes into ecstasies over the romantic ruins and the points of view. 

 Here he encountered Mr. Pennant, 1 with a young companion from 

 Harrogate ; ' full of a poetical verve which these beauties inflamed, 

 he escaped from time to time in order to write down the verses 

 which came into his head, and groaned at being obliged to crush 

 his genius by legal studies.' 



They drove next to Hackfall and Mowbray Point. The im- 

 pression it made on our travellers' eyes is remarkable : 



' One discovers of a sudden and without any warning the most 

 charming point of view that can be imagined a little river winding 

 through a deep glen, clothed in beautiful woods, broken only by bold 

 crags which make a very fine contrast. The stream, which shows and 



1 This must have been the well-known author, naturalist, and traveller, 

 whose Tour in Scotland Dr. Johnson warmly defended. This particular view is 

 rapturously described by Pennant in a passage in his posthumous work, A Tour 

 from Alston Moor to Harrowgate (sic) and Brimham Crags, 1904, cited in Murray's 

 Handbook to Yorkshire. Who was the young poet ? 



