Dewes, Edmund, manservant to Court Dewes
- Dictionary and Archive of Travellers
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- Dewes, Edmund, manservant to Court Dewes
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(1742 - 93) of Wellesbourne, War.
1776 [dep. Calais 13 Aug 1776] Novalese (22 Sep.), Turin (23 - 27 Sep.), Asti (28 Sep.), Alessandria, Voghera (29 Sep.), Piacenza, Fiorenzuola (30 Sep.), Parma (1 Oct.), Fiorenzuola (2 Oct.), Pavia (3 Oct.), Milan (4 Oct.), Turin (8 Oct.) [Paris, 23 Oct. - 16 Nov.]
He acted as valet de chambre to Court Dewes of Wellesbourne (a nephew of Mrs Delany) on a continental tour in the latter months of 1776 and recorded his impressions in a robustly patriotic journal.1 He described the uncomfortable realities of continental travel: the primitive inn bedrooms, the bedbugs, the unpalatable meals, the early morning departures, when he would have to rise still earlier to grease the axles of the chaise and prepare his master's chocolate. But he enjoyed himself too, saw the sights and went to the theatre. 'Put on your best coat, Mun', his master would quite often say, 'and I shall take you with me'.
The travellers were in Italy only briefly, crossing Mont Cenis on 22 September. 'Now we are in Italy', wrote Dewes at Novalese, 'tho not a bit better off than when in Savoy, for the house we stopped at is full of Savoyards & soldiers ... my master being in, half an hour before me, had got a room, & a strange one too indeed, no glass in the windows, no table nor chair, a bed of straw upon boards, a stone floor; I for my part thought myself well off with a mattrass upon the floor, at the foot of my masters bed ... to mend the matter a supper, the washing of dishes, with a few slices of turnips in it call'd soup, a bit of veal resembling a lastling calf, to make up; a few rotten peaches & sour grapes, Serv'd up with sour looks'.
The next day they arrived at Turin, where Dewes spent a rather sociable time: 'After unpacking & putting my things to rights, lookd a little about me, to see if I could meet with an englishman ... while gaping at the gate, came up two englishmen both Yourkshire, who came with 7 horses, has sold 6, the other was promised; while in discourse up comes the english ambassadors servant, an englishman, O! thought myself well off, after a little chat went to a public house to drink together, the english custom. Afterwards the ambassadors servant took me to their house, where I met with a very agreeable lady's maid english also, the butler who invited me to come & dine with om. The maid invited me to tea'.
He seems to have approved of his accommodation in the Hotel Angleterre: 'The people where we lodge are civil, the daughter rather pretty. I have been repeating english to her ever since we came; this morning she came in as I was making my masters toast & clapt her hand on my back & said how do you do my dear englishman'.
From Turin Dewes and his master travelled via Asti and Alessandria to Piacenza, which, with its empty grass-grown streets and peeling walls, was like 'a painted lady who looks best at a distance'. After a night at Fiorenzuola in a room hung with pictures of saints, 'which occasioned my master to say Mun we are safe from the devil tonight, sleeping in the midst of so many saints', they arrived at Parma, where they were taken through the empty rooms of the abandoned ducal palace. In the Parma Accademia, Dewes found an English artist copying Correggio's Virgin and Child with St Jerome and St Mary Magdalene (Il Giorno), 'allow'd to be the best picture of that subject in the world'. 'He came from Rome on purpose & thought it would take him four months longer, upon talking with him he said he had left England about 5 years'.
From Parma they turned homewards. In Milan Dewes was especially impressed by the unfinished cathedral and the view from its roof of the plain of Lombardy and the Alps. The weather had been very wet, and flooding made the journey from Milan to Turin a hazardous one. On 10 October they crossed Mont Cenis for the second time. Before leaving Italy Dewes pronounced his verdict on its inhabitants: 'I think the Italians are a set of the most imposingest people I have met with & never satisfyd[,] in generall as dirty & ugly as possible'.
On 13 December, after spending over a month in France, the travellers eventually arrived back in Wellesbourne, and Dewes brought his journal to an end: 'home is home after all if ever so homely, & I shall still think there are more sweets & more virtues [in] Old England ... than I have met with in other countries, therefore I would recommend to an englishmans wife, if her husband has not that affection for her she could wish, let her send him to Savoy for twelve month & I warrant her she would have comfort at his return'.
1. Bodl., MS Eng.Misc. d.213.
A.M. R.