An introduction to the raucous yet educational 'gap year' tours of Europe taken by wealthy British graduates in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The Grand Tour, the eighteenth-century's precursor to the gap year, was a rite of passage for young aristocrats fresh out of university: it was a tour of Europe ostensibly taken to absorb culture, knowledge, and appreciation for the arts; but was also often a gateway to womanizing and debauchery. This book looks at how the tour developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, examining what the young tourists got up to on their foreign travels - how they acquired 'polish' and knowledge of art, architecture, and opera. It looks at how they developed a passion for collecting, and how they applied those interests to fit out what became one of the triumphs of the eighteenth century - the English country house.