He Had Recently Directed The Compilation
Of A Large Universal Geography Or Gazetteer, The Carton Or Vivien
De St. Martin If Those Days - Hence His Glib References To The
Manners And Customs Of Laplanders, Caffres, Kamskatchans, And
Other Recondite Types Of Breeding.
His imaginative faculty was
under the control of an exceptionally strong and retentive
memory.
One may venture to say, indeed, without danger of
exaggeration that his testimonials as regards habitual accuracy
of statement have seldom been exceeded. Despite the doctor's
unflattering portraits of Frenchmen, M. Babeau admits that his
book is one written by an observer of facts, and a man whose
statements, whenever they can be tested, are for the most part
"singularly exact." Mr. W. J. Prouse, whose knowledge of the
Riviera district is perhaps almost unequalled out of France,
makes this very remarkable statement. "After reading all that
has been written by very clever people about Nice in modern
times, one would probably find that for exact precision of
statement, Smollett was still the most trustworthy guide," a view
which is strikingly borne out by Mr. E. Schuyler, who further
points out Smollett's shrewd foresight in regard to the
possibilities of the Cornice road, and of Cannes and San Remo as
sanatoria." Frankly there is nothing to be seen which he does
not recognise." And even higher testimonies have been paid to
Smollett's topographical accuracy by recent historians of Nice
and its neighbourhood.
The value which Smollett put upon accuracy in the smallest
matters of detail is evinced by the corrections which he made in
the margin of a copy of the 1766 edition of the Travels.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 23 of 535
Words from 6052 to 6323
of 143308
