[Editor: This article, regarding Charles Lever (1806-1872) and his prank on Italians regarding Cook’s Tours (regarding convicts supposedly rejected by the Australian colonies), is an extract from the “Literary notes” section published in The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.), 27 April 1935. The novelist Charles Lever (then living in Italy) was annoyed at the large numbers of “common people” who were flooding Italy on holiday, after they bought the cheap package tours being offered by Thomas Cook’s travel company.]
Literary notes
From “Early Victorian England, 1830-65,” edited by Mr. G. M. Young (Oxford University Press):—
Charles Lever, then Vice-Consul at Spezia, was a formidable opponent to Cook’s (1845). Writing unofficially in “Blackwood’s Magazine” under the pseudonym of Cornelious O’Dowd, he speaks of “the cities of Italy deluged with droves of these creatures. I have already met three flocks, and anything so uncouth I never saw before, the men, mostly elderly, dreary, sad-looking; the women, somewhat younger, travel-tossed and crumpled, but intensely lively, wideawake, and facetious.”
Worse still, he told his credulous Italian friends that the tourists were convicts rejected by the Australian colonies, and that Cook had arranged with the English Government to dump a few in every city in Italy. The Italians took it seriously, and Cook appealed in vain to the Foreign Office for redress.
Foreign travel changed in our period from a social experience for the few into a holiday for the many, and, with the help of Cook’s tickets, into a scamper for the multitude.
Source:
The Australasian (Melbourne, Vic.), 27 April 1935, p. 6 (Metropolitan Edition)
Editor’s notes:
This article is not specifically pertaining to Australian heritage and culture, but has been included here due to its tangential connection to the Australian colonies.
Charles Lever = Charles James Lever (1806-1872), author; he was born in Dublin (Ireland) in 1806, and died in Trieste (Italy) in 1872
See: “Charles Lever”, Wikipedia
Cook’s = Thomas Cook’s travel company, which sold affordable package tours (commonly known as “Cook’s Tours”), being guided tours which showed tourists the major features of places, often at a fast pace; the phrase “Cook’s tour” refers to a fast and cursory tour of something (not just regarding travel and holidays)
See: 1) “Thomas Cook & Son”, Wikipedia
2) “Cook’s Tours”, Oxford Reference (Oxford University Press)
Foreign Office = the department of the British government which deals with foreign affairs; known as the “Foreign Office” from 1782 to 1968, it changed its name to the “Foreign and Commonwealth Office” in 1968, then to the “Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office” in 2020
See: 1) “1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Foreign Office”, Wikisource [republication of the entry “Foreign Office” from the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911)]
2) “Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office”, Wikipedia
Spezia = La Spezia, the capital city of the province of La Spezia (Italy)
See: “La Spezia”, Wikipedia
wideawake = (also spelt: wide awake, wide-awake) alert, clever, knowing, well aware
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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