Salvador
Hiring couriers like the Ruskinsʼ
Salvador was, according to
John Murrayʼs
1836 guidebook to the
Continent,
preferable to bringing English servants, who, knowing only their own language, were “worse than useless”
(putting aside a specialized role for an English servant such as tending to the children, performed for the Ruskins on these earlier tours by
Anne Strachan).
Murrayʼs guidebook lists, along with advice about couriersʼ employment, wages, and treatment, their duties as typically consisting in
“preceding the carriage at each stage, to secure relays of post horses”;
arranging for “reception at inns” and securing “comfortable rooms, clean and well‐aired beds, and order[ing] meals to be prepared”; examining the carriage daily for needed repairs,
as “it is his fault if any accident occur
en route, from neglect of such precautions”; superintending “the packing and unpacking of the luggage”
and insuring its security;
paying “innkeepers, postmasters, and postboys”; and performing “all the services of waiting and attendance, cleaning and brushing clothes”, and so forth
(
Handbook for Travellers on the Continent, xviii–xix).
As qualifications,
Murray emphasizes the courierʼs written as well as verbal command of the languages of the places being visited. “He never, however, performs the office of a
valet de place while staying in a place, even though he may be well acquainted with it; this he considers out of his province”.
Murray estimates wages as £8 to £10 monthly—even more, if engaged for less than two months; and less, if the traveler remains stationary in a place for an extended period
(
Handbook for Travellers on the Continent, xix).
That the Ruskins were generous to their courier is suggested by
Burdʼs note that
John Jamesʼs account book lists £100 for
Salvador under “Charity & Gifts” for
1835
(
Burd, ed., Ruskin Family Letters, 300 n. 10).
The distinction between
Salvadorʼs role and that of a valet de place was observed by the Ruskins
in the course of the
Tour of 1833 when engaging a local guide
or “commissionaire” to sights, for example, in
Mainz [to come]
(
Diary of Mary Richardson, 1833, 26). The distinction between ciceroni and domestic servants
brought from home
was later maintained in the respective roles of
Salvadorʼs successor,
Joseph Marie Couttet (d.
1874), and
Ruskinʼs
body servant,
John Hobbs (a.k.a “George”) (d.
1892).
Characteristically for the Ruskins, these menʼs duties of looking after
Ruskin while abroad,
which began in the early
1840s, were bound up in close family attachments
that encompassed
Ruskinʼs parents
(
Hilton, ed., John Ruskin: The Early Years, 80;
Burd, ed., Ruskin Family Letters, 678 n. 2).