ST 2008 Beginnings 1402 Transport: 1478 Accommodation: Mary
I 1555 History
/ Politics: . Visitors
(Refugees): 1556 Knox
preaches at the "Temple de l'auditoire" in
Geneva. Elizabeth
I 1560 Geneva
Bible
(transl. William Whittingham, Anthony
Gilby and Thomas Sampson) 1563 Visitors: 1592 Visitors: 1593 Visitors: 1603 Visitors: James
I 1604 Visitors: 1608 Visitors: 1611 Travel
Book: 1616 Visitors: Charles
I 1626 Visitors: 1629 Visitors: 1635 History
/ Politics: 1639 Visitors: 1641 Visitors: 1646 Visitors: 1647 Visitors: Commonwealth 1649 History
/ Politics: 1653 Transport
and Communication: Charles
II 1660 Visitors: 1665 Visitors: 1665 Music: 1684 Travel
Book: James
II 1686 Visitors: 1687 Travel
Book: 1688 Visitors: William
III and Mary II 1690 Visitors: 1691 Transport: 1692 Travel
Book: 1701 Visitors: Anne 1702 History
/ Politics: 1703 History
/ Politics: 1707 Traffic: 1708 Visitors: 1713 History
/ Politics: 1713 Maps: 1714 Travel
Book: George
I 1715 History
/ Politics: History
/ Politics: 1722 Travel
Book: 1723 Visitors: George
II 1728 During
his journey with Johann Gesner (Geneva,
Martigny, Sion, Leuk, Gemmi, Kandersteg,
Interlaken, Meiringen, Joch Pass,
Engelberg, Lucerne) Albrecht
von
Haller
conceives his poem Die
Alpen
(1739). 1733 History
/ Politics: 1739 Visitors: . Literature
on Switzerland: 1741 Visitors: . Mountaineering: 1746 History
/ Politics: 1746 Visitors: 1748 Visitors: . Tourism: 1749 Travel
Book: 1754 Visitors: 1755 Visitors: 1756 Literature
on Switzerland: 1757 Literature: 1759 Voltaire buys an estate called Fernay (near
Geneva), where he spends the rest of his
life. Visits to Voltaire become - against
his wish - part of the "Grand
Tour". ("Voltaire at Fernet", D. H. Auden) 1760 Travel
Book: . Sport
/ mountaineering: George
III 1761 Literature
on Switzerland: 1762 Lord
Keith gives Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(1712-78) protection in Neuchâtel.
Du contrat social published. 1763 Literature
on Switzerland: 1764 History
/ Politics: 1764 Visitors: . Literature
on Switzerland: 1765 Jean-Jacques
Rousseau moves to the Ile St. Pierre
(Petersinsel) in the Lake of
Bienne. . Visitors: 1766 Jean-Jacques
Rousseau accepts an invitation from David
Hume to come and live in
England. 1766 Visitors: 1769 Paintings: 1770 Visitors: . Accommodation: 1771 Paintings: . Visitors: 1773
Visitors: 1775 Visitors: .1776 Visitors: . Painting: .1777 Visitors: Travel
book: .
1779 Visitors: . Sport
/ Mountaineering: . Travel
Books: 1780 Accommodation: 1781 Paintings: 1782 History
/ Politics: . Visitors: 1783 Visitors
/ Residents: . Paintings: 1784 Visitors: 1785 Visitors: 1786 Visitors: . Sport
/ mountaineering: 1787 Visitors: . Sport
/ mountaineering: . Travel
Book: 1788
Visitors: . Paintings: 1789 History
/ Politics: . Travel
Books: . Visitors: . Accommodation: other
timelines:
Department of English, University of Basel
Literature and Culture Studies: Seminar M.
Marti
British and American Visitors in Switzerland:
History of Tourism in Switzerland
till 1789 /
The
Romantics (1789
- 1837) / The
Victorians
(1837 - 1901) / 20th
century
full
timeline (one
page)
course
programme (provisional)
Adam of Usk, passing the Gotthard, writes
that he is drawn in an ox-wagon "half dead
with cold, and with mine eyes blindfold
lest I should see the dangers of the pass"
(Wraight, p. 101f)
First guesthouses in Leukerbad
1553 - 1558
Prosecution of Protestants in
England.
British Refugees in Switzerland (Marian
Exiles, 1555-58):
About 200 refugees in Geneva: John Scorye
(later Bishop of Rochester), Miles
Coverdale (translator of the first
completely printed ed. of the Bible),
William Kethe, John Bodley, William
Stafford, Anthony Gilby, Christopher
Goodman, Sir John Borthwick, David
Lindsay, John Davidson (later Principal of
Glasgow University). John Knox becomes the
first pastor of the British community in
Calvin's Geneva; Thomas Lever in Aarau
(Wraight, p. 36)
Zurich: Edwin Sandys (later Archbishop of
York), Robert Horne (later Bishop of
Winchester), John Parkhurst (later Bishop
of Salisbury).
Basel: John Bale, James Pilkington (later
Bishop of Durham), Richard Turner, Thomas
Bentham, John Foxe, Lady Dorothy Stafford,
Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Francis
Knollys. (Wraight, 112f)
1558-1603
Sir Edward Unton visits "Zwechary"
(Switzerland) with his servant and diarist
Richard Smith (Como, Lugano, Bellinzona,
Gotthard Pass, Andermatt, Altdorf,
Lucerne, Basel)
Richard Smith: "This mountaine is from the
fote to the topp 2 leages and very stepe
the way narrow stony and dangerous snow
lyenge uppon the mountaine both winter and
somer / uppon the top of this hil is an
osterye / al our way unto this mountaine
the hills ar very full off chestnutt tres
and very abundant of chestnuts / but this
mountaine bereth nothing but snow and
stones / we ffound extrem cold uppon this
hill / we decended this hill still untill
we came to a littel towne called olsera
[Andermatt] from there rode an
enlyshe myle plaine ground and descended
agen / from olsera aboute ii enlyshe myles
is a brydge which is called ponte inferno
/ it standeth in a straite betwene the
mountaines the beginninge of the ryver of
rehin cometh from mount godard and at this
brydge hath such a fale among the huge
stones that is merveylous." (de Beer, p.
11f)
Fynes
Moryson:
Constance, Schaffhausen, Eglisau, Zurich,
Basle.
In the 16th century, baths were much more
popular than mountains. Moryson remarks on
guests in Baden: "many have no disease but
that of love, howsoever they faine
sickness of body, come hither for remedy,
and many times find it."
Sir
Henry
Wotton
(1568-1639) : Chiavenna, Splügen,
Thusis, Coire, Berne, Geneva.
"I took my course through the Grisons to
Geneva, leaving a discreet country in my
opinion too soon." (de Beer, p.
14)
The composer John
Bull (1563-1628),
travelling in France and Germany might
have heard a patois song "Cé
qu'é laîno, le Maître
de Bataille", which has similarities to
"God Save the Queen"
1603 - 1625
Sir
Henry
Wotton
(1568-1639, see 1593): Coire, Thusis,
Splügen, Chiavenna
Thomas Coryat (1577-1617) on his way back
from Venice: Chiavenna, Splügen,
Thusis, Coire, Wesen, Zurich, Baden,
Basel.
"The ways are very offensive to foote
travellers. For they are pitched with very
sharp and rough stones that will very much
punish and greate a man's feete." (de
Beer, p. 16)
Thomas Coryat. Coryat's Crudities:
Hastily gobled up in five Moneths travells
in France, Savoy, Italy, Rhetia, commonly
called the Grisons country, Helvetia alias
Switzerland, some parts of high Germany
and the Netherlands; Newly digested in the
hungry aire of Odcombe in the County of
Somerset, and now dispersed to the
nourishment of the travelling Members of
this Kingdome.
Sir
Henry
Wotton
(1568-1639, see 1593): Basel, Lausanne,
Thonon, Chambéry.
"Infection hindered us to pass the nearest
way to Chambéry, and forced us to
put our horses and selves at hazard over
the Leman Lake, and so to traverse Savoy,
buy such rocks and precipices as I think
Hannibal did hardly exceed it when he made
his way (as poets tell us) with fire and
vinegar." (de Beer, 17)
1625-1649
Sir Isaac Wake undertakes a mission to
Berne and Zurich on behalf of the canton
of the Grisons. He then urges London to
appoint a permanent British mission to
Switzerland to support the Protestant
cantons. A Threefold Help to Political
Obversations. i, concerning the Thirteen
Cantons of the Helviticall League,
London, 1655. Wake stresses the strategic
importance of Switzerland between Germany
and Italy.
Oliver Fleming appointed British
diplomatic agent to Switzerland
Henry Duc de Rohan receives orders by
Cardinal de Richelieu to march with his
army from the Alsace into the Grisons -
without offending the cantons he passes.
He leeds his army through Basel, Aargau,
Baden, Zurich, St. Gallen and
Altstätten to Chur. During the
campaign ("Bündner Wirren") he stays
at Thusis, Spllügen, Chiavenna,
Tirano, Maloja, Livigno, Poschiavo,
Bormio.
John
Milton travels
through Switzerland on his return from
Italy, via the Simplon Pass, stopping at
Brig, Martigny and Geneva, where he stays
at the house of Jean Diodati. (= Giovanni Diodati)
Robert
Boyle
stays at the house of Jean Diodati (= Giovanni Diodati) in
Geneva. "There is three wayes from hence
into Italy by Sweetserland and ye Grisons,
by Turin, and by Marseilles. The first is
to peinefull because of ye great quantity
of snow that couereth ye mountaines; ye
second is to Dangerous because of ye armys
that are both in piedmon and upon the
state of Milan; the third is ye Longest
indeed but ye sweetest..." (de Beer, p.
19)
Boyle then chooses the first: Geneva,
Lausanne, Solothurn, Zurich, Coire,
Thusis, Splügen, Chiavenna,
Bergamo.
The diarist John Evelyn (1620-1702) comes
from Domodossola (Simplon, Brig, Sion,
Martigny, Bouveret) to Geneva. He comments
on the way Swiss people dress: "... little
variety of distinction betwixt the
gentleman and the common sort, by a law of
their country being exceedingly frugal.
Add to this their great honesty and
fidelity, though exacting enough for what
they part with. I saw not one beggar ... I
look upon this country to be the safest
spot of all Europe, neither envied nor
envying; nor are any of them rich or poor;
they live in great simplicity and
tranquillity; and although of the fourteen
cantons, half be Roman Catholic, the rest
Reformed, yet they mutually agree, and are
confederate with Geneva." (Wraight,
133f)
John Raymond on his way from Domodossola
to Geneva: "Having with much paines, yet
delight, because of the variety, crouded
through some of the Alpes, wee came to
dinner at Sampion, at the top of the
Mountaine..." (= Simplon
Hospiz)
1649 - 1660
Charles
I
executed,
monarchy abolished.
A weekly post service established by the
Luganese Diego Maderno: Lucerne - Milano
in 4 days.
1660-1685
Some of the "Regicides"
(the judges who had condemned Charles I to
death) flee to Switzerland: Edmund Ludlow,
John Lisle (assasinated in Vevay in 1664),
Cawley, Nicholas Love,and Andrew
Broughton. They settle down in Geneva,
Lausanne and Vevey.
Ludlow: "In the house where I lodged, the
mistress being an English woman, I found
good beer, which was a great refreshment
to me, after the fatigue of my journey."
(de Beer, p. 21)
John
Ray
(1627-1705): Sta Maria, Ofen Pass, Zernez,
Ponte, Albula, Bergün, Coire,
Walenstadt, Glarus, Einsiedeln, Schwyz,
Altdorf, Stans, Luzerne, Zug, Zurich,
Aarau, Solothurn, Berne, Fribourg,
Lausanne, Geneva
The naturalist writes in his
Observations ... Made in a Journey
through the Low Countries, Germany, Italy
and France::
"All the Switzers in general are very
honest people, kind and civil to
strangers. One may travel their country
securely with a bag of gold in his hand.
When we came to our inns they would be
troubled if we distrusted them so far as
to take our portmanteaus into our lodging
chambers and not leave them in the common
dining room." (Wraight, p. 141) and on
Zurich: "The Zurichers who anciently had
the reputation for valour, are now much
given to merchandise and to accumulate
riches, and so taken off from martial
studies and exercises"
Edmund
Ludlow
(the Regicide) composes the
Bernermarsch
J. J. Wagner (1641-95), Index
Memorabilium Helvetiae. (The first
real Swiss guidebook)
1685 - 1688
Gilbert
Burnet
visits Geneva, Lausanne, Berne, Solothurn
and Basel.
"I left Geneva with a Concern that I could
not have felt in leaving any Place out of
the Isle of Britain."
Gilbert
Burnet
(later Bishop of Salisbury): Some
Letters Containing What Seemed Most
Remarkable in Switzerland, Italy,
etc.
John Dennis
1689 - 1702
The British Minister to Switzerland,
Thomas Coxe and his wife make an "official
visit" to Interlaken and Grindelwald.
"The whole towne rang with joy ye whole
day and night ... spectators of all ages
and sexes crowded at ye windows ... and
saluted me so continually and civilly as I
pass't, that I could not putt on my hatt
from one gate of ye city to ye
other."
Beat de Fischer, Bernese patrician,
establishes a Swiss transalpine postal
service with a direct link between London
and Berne, passing along the left bank of
the Rhine.
Remarks on the Grand Tour lately
performed by a Person of
Quality
Joseph
Addison
(1672-1719) visits Geneva, Lausanne,
Fribourg, Berne, Solothurn, Gotthard,
Zurich and St. Gallen.
He writes a letter to Willaim Congreve
"from the top of the highest mountain in
Switzerland where I am now shivering among
the Eternal frosts and snows. ... I am
here entertained with the prettiest
variety of snow-prospects that you can
imagine." (de Beer, p. 26)
"It is very wonderful to see such a knot
of governments, which are so divided among
themselves in matters of religion,
maintain so uninterrupted an union and
correspondence, that no one of them is for
invading the rights of another. ... This I
think must be chiefly ascribed to the
nature of the people, and the constitution
of their governments." (Wraight,
150)
1702 - 1714
England declares war on France. The Duke
of Marlborough (John Churchill) starts a
campaign
on the continent and captures Kaiserworth,
Venloo and Liege.
Marlborough captures Bonn, Huy, Limoges
and Guelders.
Urner
Loch:
First road tunnel in the Alps (64
m.).
Gilbert
Burnet:
Zurich, Grindelwald. (see also 1686 and
1687)
Treaty of Utrecht establishes the terms of
peace with Louis XIV.
Johann
Jakob
Scheuzer
publishes "Nova Helvetiae Tabula
Geographica", the most complete map of
Switzerland of the eighteenth century.
Followed in 1723 by Ouresiphoites
Helveticus sive Intinera Alpina per
Helvetiae alpinas regiones facta annis
MDCCII. MDCCIII. etc. (1702-1711,
contains illustrations of dragons that
have been seen by travellers in the
Alps)
L'Etat de la Suisse, en 1714 - An Account
of Switzerland Written in the Year
1714, by Abraham Stanyan, former
British Minister in Berne.
1714-1727
Jacobite Rebellion in favour of James
Stuart, "the Old Pretender", fails in
Scotland.
England at war with Spain.
The Gentleman's Pocket Companion for
travelling into Foreign parts, illustrated
with maps (London)
Sir
Horace
Mann
goes from Geneva to Grindelwald: "Four
years previously, the glacier had advanced
so much that the inhabitants were
considering a petition to their government
for permission to make use of the services
of an exorcist to drive the glacier back
... the glacier did in fact recede, though
doubtless for other reasons." (de Beer, p.
30)
1727-1760
Anti-British riots in the Valais as Mandel
and Aston, two Englishmen, should get the
rights to exploit the iron mines in the
Valley of Binn. (Wraight, 162)
Horace
Walpole
(1717-97) travels with Thomas
Gray
(1716-71) for two years on the
Continent.
Walpole on the Alps: "I hope I shall never
see them again".
Albrecht von Haller,
Die
Alpen
Albrecht von Haller's ode changes the
attitudes of many people: The Alps become
very popular.
Lady
Mary Wortley
Montague
(Geneva)
Benjamin Stillingfleet (1702-1771),
probably in blue
stockings
- visits Chamonix from Geneva.
William Wyndham: Geneva, Chamonix
Richard
Pococke
(1704-1765): Basel, Liestal, Waldenburg,
Solothurn, Aarberg, Murten, Lausanne,
Nyon, Geneva, Chamonix, Thonon, Evian,
Aigle, Bex, Vevey, Fribourg, Murten,
Neuchâtel, Berne, Lucerne, Walchwil,
Zug, Zurich, Winterthur, Schaffhausen,
Basel.
William "Boxing" Wyndham recruits a "large
brigade of guides" to climb the Montanvert
(Chamonix)
The Highlanders are massacred at the
Battle
of
Culloden,
Cumberland wins against the Jacobites.
Charles Edward, the Young Pretender
(Bonnie Prince Charlie), escapes to
France.
Philip Stanhope visits Lausanne, Bex,
Berne and Einsiedeln on his Grand Tour.
HIs father, the Earl of Chesterfield,
writes to him: "Bishop Burnet has wrote
his travels through Switzerland [see
1687], and Mr. Stanyan, from a long
residence there, has written the best
account, yet extant, of the thirteen
cantons [see 1714]: but those
books will be read no more. I presume,
after you shall have published your
accounts of that country. I hope you will
favour me with one of the first copies. To
be serious, though I do not desire that
you shall immediately turn author and
oblige the world with your travels, yet,
wherever you go, I would have you as
curious and inquisitive as if you did
intend to write them." (1747; Wraith,
167f)
James
Hutton
(1726-1797): Schaffhausen, St. Gallen,
Zurich, Aarau, Berne, Neuchâtel,
Geneva.
Thomas Hollis (1720-74): Geneva, Berne,
Zurich.
Because of the excavations Herculaneum
(1738) and Pompeji (1748) become major
destinations of the Grand Tour.
The first major guidebook to the
Grand
Tour:
Nugent, Thomas. The grand Tour or a
journey through the Netherlands, Germany,
Italy and France (4 vol.
London).
Prince Charles Edward Stuart or
Bonnie
Prince
Charlie,
the Young Pretender, stays in Basel at the
hotel Drei Könige under the
name of Mr. Thompson. He is travelling
with Miss Walkinshaw and their daughter,
the future Duchess of Albany.
Lord Keith (outlawed because of his
participation in the Jacobite Rebellion)
is made Governor of the principality of
Neuchâtel for Frederick the Great,
King of Prussia. (Neuchâtel remains
Prussian till 1815)
Edward
Gibbon
(1737-94) makes a tour of Switzerland
(Lausanne, Yverdon, Neuchâtel,
Solothurn, Baden, Zurich, Einsiedeln,
Basel, Aarau, Berne). In Einsiedeln he
comments: "I was astonished by the profuse
ostentation of riches in the poorest
corner of Euope; amidst a savage scene of
woods and mountains, a palace appears to
have been erected by magic."
(Back in Lausanne, Gibbon falls in love
with Suzanne Curchaud, but his father
forbids the marriage. Suzanne then married
Jacques Necker, and their daughter became
the famous Mme
de Stael.
Gibbon returned to England in 1758.)
Voltaire comes to Geneva: L'auteur
arrivant dans sa terre, près du lac
de
Genève.
(epitre 85, 1755)
Oliver
Goldsmith
(1728-74) makes Voltaire's acquaintance in
Lausanne. Poem "The
Traveller".
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Nouvelle
Héloise.
George Keate (1729-1797) Verses,
occasioned by visiting in 1756, a small
Chapel on the Lake of Lucern, in the
canton of Uri, erected to the memory of
the famous William Tell.
Edmund Burke:
Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin
of our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful
Burke's idea of the "Sublime" changes
people's view of the Alps.
The term "Grand Tour" appears in Voyage
of Italy, by Richard Lassels (the word
"tourist" only around 1800)
Horace-Benedict de Saussure visits
Chamonix, and offers a reward to the man
who should first succeed in reaching the
summit of Mont Blanc.
1760-1820
Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Julie, ou la
Novelle Héloise: The lovers,
Julie and Saint-Preux, live at the foot of
the Alps. The book fosters a cult of the
environs of Lake Leman and Switzerland
becomes the goal of literary
pilgrimages.
Wieland's translation of Shakespeare
published by Orell Gesner & Co,
Zurich. Sponsored by Johann Jakob
Bodmer.
George Keate (1729-1797) The
Alps
After the Peace of Paris has ended the
Seven Years' War, the way is open for
British tourists to travel to the
continent.
British tourists have increased: a Swiss
observer estimates that of twenty guests
in a Swiss inn, fourteen are British.
Charles
Stanhope
(1763-1816) and Daniel Malthus (the father
of (the father of Thomas Robert Malthus)
visit Voltaire in Geneva.
On his Grand Tour, James
Boswell
goes from Basel to Solothurn, stays there
at the Hotel de La Couronne, visits Lord
Keith in Neuchâtel, makes six calls
on Rousseau
at Motiers and spends some time with
Voltaire at Ferney.
Oliver
Goldsmith
(1728-74): Poem "The
Traveller".
Samuel Sharp: "I must confess to you that
I have yet seen nothing which has afforded
me so much pleasure as that extraordinary
genious Mons. Voltaire. My principal
motive for passing the Alps, by way of
Geneva, was a visit to that Gentleman."
(Letters from Italy, 1766)
John
Wilkes (1725-97):
"The Appenines are not near so high or so
horrible as the Alps. On the Alps you see
very few tolerable spots; and only firs,
but very majestic." (de Beer, p.
46)
Adam
Smith
stays in Geneva, accompanying the young
Duke of Buccleuch as a travelling tutor.
He meets Voltaire at Ferney, works in
Geneva on his Wealth of Nations.
George Keate: An
Epistle to Monsieur de
Voltaire
The Irish painter Edmund Garvey exhibits a
watercolour of a Waterfall in the
Alps at the Royal Academy, one of the
first Alpine paintings to be shown in
Britain.
The English painter William
Pars (1742-82)
is engaged by the 2nd Lord Palermston to
accompany him on a 6 weeks' tour of
Switzerland, to make "drawings of the most
remarkable views and antiquities".
Horace-Benedict
de
Saussure
joins them for part of the tour. (Geneva,
Chamonix, Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald,
Meiringen, Grimsel, Furka, Andermatt)
Frederick
Hervey
(1730-1803): Geneva, Chur (Coire),
Bondo.
Frederick Hervey, Bishop of Derry and 4th
Earl of Bristol, likes to travel, and his
reputation for good living and for staying
at the best hotels explains the number of
hotels named "Bristol" after
him.
Mme Coutterand opens the first inn at
Chamonix.
William
Pars
(see 1770) shows his Swiss drawings in
London.
Norton
Nicholls,
encouraged by Thomas Gray, crosses
Switzerland on his way from Paris to
Milan. He visits Salomon Gessner in
Zurich, "the poet, author of the death of
Abel of which you have read the
translation, he is a man of genius and
amiable; - I pass everywhere like current
coin as the friend of poor Mr. Gray..."
(Black, p. 35)
The 8th Duke of Hamilton on the Grand
Tour, accompanied by John Moore, visits
Geneva, Chamonix, Martigny, Evian,
Lausanne, Berne and Basel.
Lord Charles Greville is the first person
to cross the Gotthard pass in a wheeled
carriage.
The botanist and garden architect Thomas
Blaikie (1851-1838) is sent by Dr
Fothergill (Upton near Stratford.) and Dr
Pitcairn, to search for rare alpine plants
in Switzerland. He passes through: Geneva,
Thonon, Evian, Morgins, Monthey, Bex,
Sion, Leuk, Gemmi, Kandersteg, Interlaken,
Grindelwald, Thun, Berne, Biel, St. Imier,
Vallorbe, Lac de Joux, Chamonix, Lausanne,
Vevey, Aigle.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (together with
Counts Friedrich Leopold and Christian
Stolberg): Schaffhausen, Zurich,
Einsiedeln, Schwyz, Rigi, Altdorf,
Andermatt, Gotthard, Altdorf, Brunnen,
Zug, Zurich, Basel.
William
Coxe
(1747-1828) visits Schaffhausen, St.
Gallen, Appenzell, Sargans, Walenstadt,
Glarus, Einsiedeln, Rapperswil, Zurich,
Zug, Lucerne, Altdorf, Andermatt, Furka,
Münster, Grimsel, Meiringen,
Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Interlaken,
Kandersteg, Gemmi, Leuk, Sion, Martigny,
Chamonix, Geneva, Lausanne, Yverdon,
Neuchâtel, Le Locle, Murten,
Fribourg, Berne, Bienne, Solothurn,
Basel.
Coxe makes his first visit to Switzerland,
visiting Lavater and Salomon Gessner. (see
also 1779, 1785, 1786 and 1802)
The painter John
Robert
Cozens
(1717-86) is accompanying Richard Payne
Knight on his tour: Geneva, Chamonix,
Martigny, Berne, Thun, Interlaken,
Lauterbrunnen, Grindelwald, Meiringen,
Engelberg, Surenen, Altdorf, Klausen,
Glarus, Coire, Thusis, Splügen,
Chiavenna.
John
Robert
Cozens
(1717-86), 55 watercolour drawings:
The
Valley of the
Rhone,
Between
Chamonix and Martigny
William Beckford (1759-1844): "Were I not
to go to Voltaire's sometimes and to the
mountains very often I should
die."
Jakob Samuel Wyttensbach publishes a
guide-book to the glaciers and peaks of
the Bernese Oberland.
William
Coxe
(1747-1828) comes from Chiavenna to St
Moritz and finds a health spa: "I am
lodged in one of the boarding-houses,
which abound in this place, for the
Accommodation of persons who drink the
waters." (de Beer, p. 62) He moves on to
Zurich via Zuoz, Schuols, Nauders, Sta.
Maria, Umbrail, Chiavenna, Splügen,
Thusis, Chur (Coire), Lenzerheide, Davos,
Klosters, Landquart, Disentis, Oberalp,
Andermatt, Altdorf, Brunnen, Schwyz,
Gersau, Stans, Lucerne.
Thomas Martyn collects material for his
guide book to Switzerland (see 1787). He
starts a round trip from Geneva, visiting
Lausanne, Vevey, Aigle, Berne, Solothurn,
Basel, Schaffhausen, Konstanz, Zurich,
Lucerne, Biel, Neuchâtel, Thun,
Interlaken, Brienz, Meiringen,
Grindelwald, Lauterbrunnen, Interlaken,
Fribourg, Chamonix
Frederick
Hervey
(1730-1803) comes from Aosta (Grand St.
Bernard, Martigny) to Berne.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Duke Karl
August von Weimar: Basel, Moutier, Biel,
Bern, Interlaken, Lauterbrunnen,
Grindelwald, Meiringen, Bern, Lausanne,
Chamonix, Martigny, Sion, Leukerbad, Brig,
Furka, Altdorf, Lucerne, Zurich,
Schaffhausen.
Mr. Blair, an Englishman living in Geneva,
erects a small wooden hut on the
Montenvers. Blair's Cabin lasts till
1812.
William
Coxe
(1747-1828): Sketches of the Natural,
Civil and Political State of Swisserland.
(see 1776)
Horace-Benedict
de
Saussure:
Voyages dans les Alpes.
Lauterbrunnen: A new rectory is built to
take up guests.
Francis
Towne
and John
"Warwick" Smith
Revolution in Geneva.
The Duke of Gloucester, the King's
brother, has an argument with an innkeeper
at Stäfa.
Edward
Gibbon
settles in Lausanne (till 1793) to work
till 1787 on the completion of The
Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire.
Sir
George
Beaumont
(1753-1827), watercolourist, comes to
paint in Switzerland.
Sir Thomas Constable (1762-1823) travels
on foot through Switzerland, pursuing
botanical studies.
William
Beckford
setttles in La Tour-de-Peilz (near Vevey)
to work on his novel Vathek.
William
Coxe
(1747-1828) makes another complete tour
(after 1776 and 79): Schaffhausen, Zurich,
Basel, Moutier, Biel, Solothurn, Berne,
Langnau, Lucerne, Stans, Engelberg,
Altdorf, Andermatt, Furka, Grimsel,
Meiringen, Lauterbrunnen, Interlaken,
Kandersteg, Gemmi, Leuk, Sion, Martigny,
Chamonix, Martigny, Bex, Vevey, Lausanne,
Geneva, Neuchâtel, Murten, Fribourg,
Biel, Porrentruy, Basel.
The poet Thomas Sedgwick Whalley
(1746&endash;1828), visiting Konstanz,
Frauenfeld, Zurich, Lucerne, Einsiedeln,
Schaffhausen, Zurich, Berne, Solothurn,
Balsthal and Basel complains about Coxe's
guide book: "I do not agree with Mr. Coxe.
The situation of Lucerne appears less
beautiful to me, than that of Zurich. ...
As I entered Lucerne by land, and with
calm ideas, its position towards the lake,
though picturesque, fell far short of my
expectations" (de Beer, p. 77f)
Horace-Benedict
de
Saussure:
ascends Mont Blanc (second after the
locals Jacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel
Paccard).
40-50 Englishmen are imprisoned in Geneva
because they tried to get out of the city
after the gates were shut. They are
banished for life from the
Republic.
Colonel Mark Beaufoy ascends Mont Blanc
soon after Horace-Benedict de
Saussure.
Thomas Martyn. Sketch of a Tour through
Swisserland. the earliest English
guide-book to Switzerland.
Charles
James Fox
(1749-1806) visits Biel, Berne and
Lausanne.
William
Windham
(1750-1810),: Schaffhausen, Basel,
Solothurn, Biel, Berne, Thun, Interlaken,
Lausanne.
Windham meets Fox in Berne.
George Augustus Wallis (1761-1847), the
English landscape painter, tours
Switzerland.
French
Revolution.
(cf. Impacts
on
Britain)
Declaration of the Rights
of Man.
(Déclaration
des droits de l'homme).
Coxe, William. Travels in
Switzerland. (after visits in 1776,
1779, 1785 and 1786)
Heinrich Heidegger, Zürich:
Handbuch für Wanderer durch die
Schweiz
Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, completes his
education for three years in Geneva.
Visits Sir
Philip de
Loutherbourg
in Biel (Bienne), joins the Masonic Lodge
of Geneva.
The first guesthouse at Kandersteg:
Gasthof "zum Ritter"
till 1789 /
The
Romantics (1789
- 1837) / The
Victorians (1837
- 1901) / 20th
century
full timeline
(one
page)
Bibliography:
Black, Jeremy. The British Abroad. The Grand Tour in the
Eighteenth Century. New York 1992
de Beer, G. R. Travellers in Switzerland. London
1949
Bernard, Paul B. Rush to the Alps. New York 1978.
Jud, Markus. Geschichte der Schweiz, Verkehr
[http://www.geschichte-schweiz.ch/verkehr.html]
Wraight, John. The Swiss and the British. Salisbury:
Russell:1987
course
programme (provisional)
American History: Colonial
America
/ 1789
- 1901
/ 1901
- 2003
British History: History
of Great Britain
