Stanley started on the first of those foreign
journeys which, throughout his life, continued to be his favourite form
of holiday.

He had just left Cambridge, having obtained a brilliant degree, and
before taking Orders he set out with his college friend, Edward
Hussey,[3] on the Grand Tour which was then considered necessary to
complete a liberal education.

They were fortunate in the moment of their journey, for the Treaty of
Amiens, which had been concluded only a few months before, had enabled
Englishmen to tour safely in France for the first time for many years;
and every scene in France was full of thrilling interest. The marks of
the Reign of Terror were still plainly to be seen, and the new order of
things which the First Consul had inaugurated was only just beginning.

It was an epoch-making journey to a young man fresh from college, and
Edward Stanley was deeply impressed by what he saw.

He could compare his own experiences with those of his brother and
father, who had been in France before the Revolution, and of his
sister-in-law, Maria Josepha, who had travelled there just before the
Reign of Terror; and in view of the destruction which had taken place
since then, he was evidently convinced that Napoleon's iron hand was the
greatest boon to the country.

He and his companion had the good fortune to leave France before the
short interval of peace ended abruptly, and they were therefore saved
from the fate of hundreds of their friends and fellow-travellers who had
thronged across the Channel in 1802, and who were detained by Napoleon
for years against their will.

Edward Stanley and Edward Hussey left France at the end of June, and
went on to Switzerland, Italy, and finally to Spain, where the
difficulties and dangers which they met, reveal the extraordinary dearth
of personal comfort and civilised habits among that nation at the time.

The dangers and discomforts did not, however, interfere with the
interest and pleasure of the writer who describes them. Then and ever
after, travelling was Edward Stanley's delight, and he took any
adventure in the spirit of the French song--

"Je suis touriste
Quel gai metier."

His letters to his father and brother show that he lost no opportunity
of getting information and of recording what he saw; and he began on
this journey the first of a long series of sketchbooks, by which he
illustrated his later journeys so profusely.

_Edward Stanley to his