THE GRAND TOUR (1768-69) 115 



some six miles out of Manchester. ' A man of extraordinary 

 vivacity, over forty, with the frame of individuals of great talents 

 and strong passions, he has that manner and appearance ; for the 

 rest lively, pleasant, agreeable, serviceable, at least towards myself.' 



At Buxton they found a good Bath-house and accommodation 

 for visitors, and visited another cavern with stalactites, and a 

 lead-mine belonging to the Duke of Devonshire near Eaton Hill, 

 where de Saussure had to go down a great many awkward ladders 

 and to crouch in low corridors. These subterranean excursions 

 of her husband obviously bored Madame de Saussure, who was 

 apt to be uneasy in his absence and impatient when his return was 

 delayed. 



Here, on the 15th September, the surviving portion of de 

 Saussure 's diary ends. 1 It is diffuse with respect to the many 

 country seats, visits to which occupied a large part of the tour. 

 The writer has an eye for detail in all things, and a very strong 

 natural taste for sylvan landscapes and ornamental gardening. 

 He admires the picturesque in English scenery, but prefers it as 

 improved by man. The austere charm of the moors escapes him ; 

 like Cobbett, he looks with disfavour on sheep and heather. In 

 mineral products, and in natural eccentricities such as caverns, 

 he is much interested, looking at them not from the tourist point 

 of view, but as possible sources of information for his History of 

 the Earth. 



The diary offers in one respect a singular illustration of how 

 travel has been affected by the increase in travellers. In the 

 eighteenth century a visitor to England could, on the strength 

 of an introduction such as de Saussure 's from Lord Palmerston, 

 count on being admitted at once both to the literary circle of the 

 capital and the great houses of the country. At each of the 

 latter the travellers spent two or three days, and in her letters 

 home Madame de Saussure dwells on the kindness with which 

 they were everywhere received. She adds that most Englishmen 

 spoke French, though the accomplishment was not so common 

 among the women. Her husband ' loves England prodigiously.' 

 She obviously repeats what we are told was his favourite phrase. 



1 The manuscript diary I have had access to ends abruptly, leaving blank 

 pages in the volume. All efforts to find its continuation if one exists have so 

 far failed. 



