The Century Lives & Letters: A Grand Tour

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In 1794, after the recent inheritance of his father's fortune, the twenty-two-year-old John Bacon Sawrey Morritt departed his native Yorkshire on a Grand Tour during which he traveled through Greece, Austria, Hungary, Asia Minor and Italy. He returned in 1796, whereupon he settled down to lead the life of the influential country squire of Rokeby Hall - situated between Richmond and Barnard Castle, and described by his friend Sir Walter Scott as 'one of the most enviable places I have ever seen'. Perhaps its attractions explain the fact that Morritt never again repeated the grand scale of the venture recorded and celebrated in this book, though he lived until 1843.A Grand Tour was not published until 1914: it forms an edited collection of Morritt's letters, written while en route, to his mother, sister and aunt. At once instructive, anecdotal and entertaining - whether dwelling on the balls and cafés of Vienna, or the pilfering of classical remains in Athens ('some we steal, some we buy') - this correspondence allows us to journey in the company of 'a man made on the purpose to travel with', in the words of a contemporary who had done just that.This edition of A Grand Tour includes and introduction by Peter J. Hogarth, who is a lecturer at York University. In addition to his many articles and publications, Dr. Hogarth is also the author of a book on dragons. He is himself well-traveled in the footsteps of J. B. S. Morritt.