The Educational Grand Tour

The term bluestocking comes from the 1756 intellectual gatherings of hostess Elizabeth Montagu and others. The focus of these sessions was rational conversation between men and women about topics such as the Renaissance, the European revival of literary, philosophical, and artistic achievements of classical antiquity. Mutual respect between the sexes was valued as was the encouragement of a woman having intellectual interests. Hedonistic ideas and behaviour – alcohol, card playing – were rejected. The term “Bluestocking” came to represent a certain intellectual outlook.

While some progressive thinkers such as the French philosopher Voltaire encouraged intellectual debate including women as equals, for the majority, restricted agency and limited education remained the norm. The ‘salons’ that existed in France allowed some women to engage in critical debate and improve themselves intellectually. This was witnessed by English women who had visited the Continent.

Elizabeth Montagu, “Queen of Bluestockings”, became a leading hostess in England. Much admired for her knowledge of literature and her wit in conversation, she held her own gatherings inspired by the salons of Paris. The Bluestockings group was not set up to promote equality as such, but they were part of the transformation that began to widen women’s roles in the eighteenth century.

Members of Elizabeth’s circle included Samuel Johnson, Frances and Joshua Reynolds, David Garrick and Edmund Burke. Elizabeth Carter, classicist and translator of Greek, was a novelist, translator and literary critic whose work promoted female learning. Hester Chapone was also a significant figure. Her “Letters on the Improvement of the Mind” stressed rational understanding through the reading of the Bible and the study of history and literature. Mary Wollstonecraft, author of the groundbreaking ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ was influenced by this work.

Bluestocking beliefs in a woman’s rights helped prepare the way for (mainly upper class) women to be able to travel independently. Many were already fluent in European languages, had artistic skills, a knowledge of history and were keen to engage in intellectual debate and to learn. Travel could also provide a way out of an unhappy marriage and could free women from restrictive social conventions. Those on the Grand Tour formed a mobile society that could make its own rules.

Writers Mary Berry and her sister Agnes visited the Continent regularly between 1783 and 1816, seeking education. They walked on the glacier at Chamonix, France and under waterfalls, inspiring their imaginations. Neither sister married, Mary had a career as an author and editor and she and her sister were known in London society for their fashionable intellectual salon whose patrons included the Duke of Wellington.

Hester Piozzi, earlier Thrale, travelled abroad for the first time in 1775 with her husband, her friend Doctor Johnson and her eldest daughter, also Hester. Hester was highly educated, speaking several languages. When widowed she spent three years in Italy. After her return to England in 1784 she published “Observations and reflections on a journey through France, Italy and Germany.”

Mariana Starke, a playwright, travelled to Italy with a sick relative who hoped the Mediterranean air would ease consumption. Her travel writings provided practical details to help other tourists, giving tips about hotels, prices and transport and ranking sites of interest. She returned to the Continent several times to update her information. She died travelling from Naples to England, aged seventy-six.

In 1792 Mary Wollstonecraft, influenced by the revolution in France, wrote her tract,” The Vindication of the Rights of Women” having realised that the revolutionary dogma of equality did not apply to women. Later that year she travelled to Paris and saw the terror of the French Revolution for herself.