subs. (old).—A turn or drive: spec. the fashionable promenade in Hyde Park: now (1903) THE ROW (Rotten Row). Also as verb.
1665. PEPYS, Diary, 19 March. Mr. Povey and I in his coach to Hyde Parke, being the first day of the TOUR there; where many brave ladies. Ibid. (13 March 1668). Took up my wife and Deb., and to the park, where being in a hackney, and they undressed, was ashamed to go into the TOUR.
1706. CENTLIVRE, The Basset-table, i. 2. The sweetness of the Park is at eleven, when the Beau-Monde make their TOUR there.
17[?]. [J. ASHTON, Social Life in the Reign of Queen Anne, II. 173]. You’ll at least keep Six Horses, Sir Toby, for I wou’d not make a TOUR in Hyde Park with less for the World; for me thinks a pair looks like a Hackney.
See TOWRE.
THE GRAND TOUR, subs. phr. (old colloquial).—In 18th and early 19th centuries a continental tour embracing France, Switzerland, Italy, and Germany: regarded as an essential finish to the education of young men of rank.
