Saturday 17 May 2008

Spectator 180th Anniversary Blog
 

The latest culture as recommended by our staff

Peter Hoskin

Pete suggests


Roman souvenir

Wednesday, 13th February 2008

Laura Gascoigne follows in the footsteps of the 18th-century Grand Tourist

‘I was much disappointed in seeing Rome,’ complained the English traveller Sarah Bentham in the 1790s. ‘The streets are narrow, dirty and filthy. Even the palaces are a mixture of dirt and finery and intermixed with wretched mean houses. The largest open spaces in Rome are used for the sale of vegetables...’ The widowed stepmother of the philosopher Jeremy Bentham was equally underwhelmed by the Roman Campagna made famous by Claude. The city, she wrote, ‘appeared to be located in a desert’.

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