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Journeys of a German in England (Celtic Interest)

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Carl Philip Moritz was born in 1757 in Hamelin in Brunswick but later moved to Hanover. He was apprenticed for a short while to a hatter but left attend a "Gymnasium" or High School and later the Ekhoff theatrical company in Gotha. Here Carl imbibed the "sturm und drang" of the era - "a stormy upsurge of creative effort under strong emotional pressure from within." Carl eventually studied theology and philosophy at the University of Wittenberg. He was fond of walking and in between teaching posts decied to visit England. Moritz was a careful observer of every day life and a truthful recorder of manners, customs and political and religious life. He was also quite fit and walked hundreds of miles from London all the way to Greenwich-Windsor-Oxford-Stratford (where he nicked a sliver of wood from what little was left of Shakespeare's chair)then on up to Derby-Matlock-Sutton and Girmingham. He walked most of the way observing the countryside noting that the English at that time were disdainful of those who did not ride or take a carriage. In London he visited the theatre, the pleasure gardens of Vauxhall and Ranelagh and was surprised at the extreme youth of Pitt when he replaced Fox in Parliament. I was sad when this book came to an end. At no time does he pontificate and is quite the Anglophile. He writes intimately with the common worker and spends each night in the kitchens of small Inns talking with the hostess and family. I love it.-