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Travel in the 18 th and 19 th Centuries People travel for many reasons for pleasure, business, educational trips, family reasons and for economic, political, military and diplomatic reasons. The reasons havent changed over time, but the way in which people travel and the numbers who do so have altered. Nowadays one takes a taxi to the airport and a number of hours later one lands in a totally different environment. In earlier times travel was slower, often by horse or carriage and then by sailboat, usually requiring much more preparation than today and usually much more of an adventure. There would be gradual changes easily observable because of the slower pace.
Most people though, unless for military reasons or trade, rarely left their home town or village and nor did many people from foreign lands travel here. There was no global village no McDonalds in every town centre. This is why places perhaps felt more foreign, more other than they are now. Lady Mary Worthy Montague for instance, had unique opportunities when her husband was appointed as ambassador to Turkey in 1717, was able to enter the sultans palace and even his harem.
Her writings describe scenes never before known in the west. She was also able to debunk stories of earlier travellers as described on page 348 by Thomas Naff in his 1977 book Studies in 18 th Century Islamic History. She was able to consider religion, language, costume and social life. There were no Turks walking around din clothing similar to that found on London streets as might be seen today. Resort hotels were of course far in the future and so it was more likely that travellers would be taken into family homes, as happened to Laurence Sterne when he travelled to Paris in 1762.
He arrived in France in January and by mid - March was fluent and fast in French according to Alice Fredman (page 5). This would have presumably have been facilitated by the fact that he spent his time with French speakers, rather than with other British travellers. He reports upon his first meal in France a fricassee of chicken, but even this must have been very different from the same dish in England for he says so incontestably in France. (page 231, An 18 th century miscellany. ) Another important 18 th century traveller was Johann von Goethe, important because his writings have survived. After travels in Switzerland and Rome he found himself in France during the Revolution. In letters written even within the sound of cannon fire he reports to his family his various difficulties as reported on the web page Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, (1749 1832) 32 In this he was like so many of these earlier travellers no quick postcards, e-mail and all the rest, but a slower pace of life with many opportunities to write in journals and long letters home. Those letters survive unlike almost every e-mail every sent.
Conclusion With modern communications and media most people in the 21 st century have at least some ideas about life in foreign countries. Ideas are formed, but these are through the medium of a third party professional travellers who make the films we watch on television perhaps. In earlier times travellers experienced everything at first hand the sights, the smells, the language. They didnt stay in chain hotels where every room is identical from Calais to Cairo. They may have had more difficulties, bumpier travel, more danger perhaps, but they were able to really experience the differences in places and people, a much more valuable experience which with the global village of today is ever more elusive. References Fredman, A. , 1955, Diderot and Sterne, New York, Columbia University Press, available from Questia Online Library, web (accessed 13 th November 2008).
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, (1749 1832), web (accessed 13 th November 2008) Kronenberger, L. (editor) 1936, An 18 th Century Miscellany, New York, G. P Putnam's Sons, available from Questia Online Library, web (accessed 13 th November 2008) Naff, T & Owen, R. , 1977, Studies in 18 th Century Islamic History, Carbondale and Edwardsville, Southern Illinois University Press, available from Questia Online Library, web (accessed 13 th November 2008)
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