Travel Abroad

Wilberforce travelled abroad twice in his life: in 1783, he spent six weeks in France with William Pitt and Edward James Eliot; in 1784-5, he travelled more extensively with his mother, sister, two of their cousins the Birds, and Isaac Milner. 

Between Friday 12 September and Friday 24 October 1783, Wilberforce, Pitt and Eliot travelled to Rheims (via Amiens, Arras and Cambrai) where they eventually met Abbe De Lageard, and thence to Paris (via Soissons), where they arrived in the evening of Thursday 09 October. At Rheims, they found that the letter of introduction they had hastily acquired before leaving England led them to a grocer; Lageard was dispatched to investigate because they were suspected of being spies but, deducing their innocence, took them under his wing and provided them with more suitable letters of introduction (an essential when travelling abroad at the time). In Paris, the trio ‘saw sights’, played tennis, and attended the opera before they travelled to Fontainebleau and were presented to Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette on Thursday 16 October. They returned to Calais via Chantilly and Amiens. The travels were cut short by Pitt’s recall; presumably Pitt and Eliot had originally planned a more extensive tour (Wilberforce had joined the party at the last minute). 

The Life narrates the trio’s ill-preparedness, and includes several longer entries written about their time at the French Court and their return to Paris, when they met the Marquis de Lafayette, who Wilberforce described as a ‘pleasing enthusiastical man’. They also quoted a letter to Henry Bankes shortly after his return which recounts his impressions of the French monarchs: Marie-Antoinette is described as ‘a monarch of most engaging manners and appearance’, but Louis XVI is ‘so strange a being … that it worth going a hundred miles for a sight of him’. (Life, vol. 1, pp. 34-44) The majority of the other entries from the journey are very short, primarily marking where they dined and slept, with occasional comments about people they met (especially girls). 

His second visit to France was considerably longer; the party left Dover on 21 October 1784, and after travelling through Arras again to Paris, they continued south through Dijon, Lyons, along the Rhône to Avignon, Aix-en-Provence, Marseilles, Toulon, and Antibes to reach Nice on 30 November, where they stayed until 03 February 1785. The return journey was not recorded in any detail, but on 22 February Wilberforce was in London again, to support Pitt’s parliamentary reform efforts, having left his relatives in Nice. 

Again, the Life includes the majority of the longer entries, focused on the voyage down the Rhône, commenting on the weather, the scenery, the quality of the roads, and the activities the party engaged in. (Life, vol. 1, pp. 66-) The early part of the journey, not quoted in the Life, resulted in similar entries to the first trip, short mentions of where they stayed with additional comments about the weather or who they met. For example, on Thursday 28 October, when they were in Paris, Wilberforce wrote ‘The ladies saw sights. I made calls could not find De Lageard. dind & evening set off for Fontainbleau’ – not an especially enlightening entry, beyond Wilberforce attempting to meet acquaintances from his previous visit. Wilberforce spoke little to no French, and presumably his relatives did not either; the majority of their social circle in Europe was other wealthy Britons travelling there. 

While Wilberforce attended to politics in Britain, his relatives decided to travel from Nice to Switzerland, as the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were doing, to avoid the summer heat. Wilberforce and Milner travelled to meet them at Genoa on 07 July 1785, having crossed the English Channel on Sunday 19 June. The reunited party then travelled to Geneva, arriving on 21 July, and later to Berne and Zurich, on 20 August. After four days at Zurich, they travelled on again, reaching Spa, in Belgium, on 08 September. They spent six weeks at Spa, taking the water, leaving on 17 October. They were delayed by poor weather at Calais – having arrived there on 26 October, they did not cross the Channel until 05 November. For the majority of the party, this amounted to over a year in Europe, but Wilberforce and Milner had returned for four months.

Again, Wilberforce’s diaries provide a record of where they travelled, and who they met, with additional comments about scenery and weather. While this second part of the European tour was when ‘the conversation between Mr Wilberforce and Mr Milner became more important than before’, foreshadowing Wilberforce’s religious conversion, there is little about it in the diary, other than a comment that ‘Mrs Crewe can’t believe I think it wrong to go to the play’ on a Sunday while at Spa (11 October). He commented more on his health (especially, as ever, his bowels), and also mentioned that the ‘Girls liked the place [Spa] & all grew better’ (20 October). The sons recount more about Wilberforce’s growing religious feelings, quoting from memoranda and conversations appended to the Life, than about the groups travels at this point (Life, vol. 1, pp. 80-88). 

On all occasions Wilberforce suffered from sea-sickness when crossing the English Channel – he recorded this in his diary in 1783, but in 1784 mentioned only that the ‘women dreadfully sick’. However, he mentioned it in a letter he wrote during the boat-trip down the Rhône to Lord Muncaster. On the first occasion he assigned his ill-comfort to the roughness of the sea, but on the latter occasion it was ‘the finest morning I ever beheld’ (Life, vol. 1, p. 69). His final channel crossing, on 05 November 1785, was undertaken in very poor weather and Wilberforce ‘lay down all the time … sick all afternoon’. He never travelled abroad again; the closest he came was trips to the Isle of Wight. 

Wilberforce’s first visit to France was not a Grand Tour in the traditional sense of wealthy young men travelling through Europe to finish their education. None of his sons undertook a Tour either, but, similar to their father, made short trips to various places on the Continent. Robert went to France in 1826 ‘for a few weeks to learn the language’ (21 June 1826), and to Rotterdam and Bonn in 1831. Samuel travelled to France and then Switzerland between June and July 1827. Henry briefly delayed his departure to Switzerland in June 1831 because he ‘could not bear to leave me when I might be ill again’ (29 June 1831). These were noted in Wilberforce’s diary, although with little detail, and he did not always mention when they returned. ANNA HARRINGTON.