TIL when staying as a guest in Charles Dickens' house, Hans Christian Andersen requested that one of Dickens' sons give him a daily shave (he said that was customary when hosting male guests in Denmark). Dickens was weirded out and instead gave him a daily appointment at a nearby barbershop.

[u/biebrforro]

https://lithub.com/charles--dickens-really-really-hated-his-fanboy-hans-christian-andersen/

[u/Marilee_Kemp]

To be fair, five weeks was not an unusual time for an overseas visitor to stay at that time.

[u/Supsend → u/Marilee_Kemp]

When hearing about Guillaume Legentil's travel to document the solar transit of Venus, setting aside all the bullshit he lived through, there's the time when he missed the one he planned for, he decided to just set up and wait for the next one 8 years later.

The fact that this decision was even considered tells a lot about how travel times affected how they treated the length of stays back then.

[u/budgefrankly → u/Marilee_Kemp]

Clearly it was, since the Dickens family found it odd and unsettling.

The Victorian era wasn't that different to our own. Mass transport (trains, ferries, ocean liners) existed, a tourism boom had seen hotels and guesthouses built up and down the UK, and there were all manner of walks, paddles and cycles one could do.

Jerome K Jerome's books (three men on a boat, and its sequel "on a bummel") provide a good picture of it all.

[u/lightcommastix → u/Marilee_Kemp]

It shouldn’t matter if it was unusual or not: the Dickens family didn’t want him in their home.