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. These
corrections, which are all in Smollett's own and unmistakably
neat handwriting, may be divided into four categories. In the
first place come a number of verbal emendations. Phrases are
turned, inverted and improved by the skilful "twist of the pen"
which becomes a second nature to the trained corrector of proofs;
there are moreover a few topographical corrigenda, suggested by
an improved knowledge of the localities, mostly in the
neighbourhood of Pisa and Leghorn, where there is no doubt that
these corrections were made upon the occasion of Smollett's
second visit to Italy in 1770. [Some not unimportant errata were
overlooked. Thus Smollett's representation of the droit d'aubaine
as a monstrous and intolerable grievance is of course an
exaggeration. (See Sentimental Journey; J. Hill Burton, The Scot
Abroad, 1881, p. 135; and Luchaire, Instit. de France.) On his
homeward journey he indicates that he travelled from Beaune to
Chalons and so by way of Auxerre to Dijon. The right order is
Chalons, Beaune, Dijon, Auxerre. As further examples of the zeal
with which Smollett regarded exactitude in the record of facts we
have his diurnal register of weather during his stay at Nice and
the picture of him scrupulously measuring the ruins at Cimiez
with packthread.] In the second place come a number of English
renderings of the citations from Latin, French, and Italian
authors. Most of these from the Latin are examples of Smollett's
own skill in English verse making. Thirdly come one or two
significant admissions of overboldness in matters of criticism,
as where he retracts his censure of Raphael's Parnassus in Letter
XXXIII. Fourthly, and these are of the greatest importance, come
some very interesting additional notes upon the buildings of
Pisa, upon Sir John Hawkwood's tomb at Florence, and upon the
congenial though recondite subject of antique Roman hygiene. [Cf.
the Dinner in the manner of the Ancients in Peregrine Pickle,
(xliv.) and Letters IX. to XL in Humphry Clinker.]
After Smollett's death his books were for the most part sold for
the benefit of his widow. No use was made of his corrigenda. For
twenty years or so the Travels were esteemed and referred to, but
as time went on, owing to the sneers of the fine gentlemen of
letters, such as Walpole and Sterne, they were by degrees
disparaged and fell more or less into neglect. They were
reprinted, it is true, either in collective editions of Smollett
or in various collections of travels; [For instance in Baldwin's
edition of 1778; in the 17th vol. of Mayor's Collection of
Voyages and Travels, published by Richard Phillips in twenty-eight
vols., 1809; and in an abbreviated form in John Hamilton
Moore's New and Complete Collection of Voyages and Travels
(folio, Vol. 11. 938-970).] but they were not edited with any
care, and as is inevitable in such cases errors crept in,
blunders were repeated, and the text slightly but gradually
deteriorated. In the last century Smollett's own copy of the
Travels bearing the manuscript corrections that he had made in
1770, was discovered in the possession of the Telfer family and
eventually came into the British Museum. The second volume, which
affords admirable specimens of Smollett's neatly written
marginalia, has been exhibited in a show-ease in the King's
Library.
The corrections that Smollett purposed to make in the Travels are
now for the second time embodied in a printed edition of the
text. At the same time the text has been collated with the
original edition of 1766, and the whole has been carefully
revised. The old spelling has been, as far as possible, restored.
Smollett was punctilious in such matters, and what with his
histories, his translations, his periodicals, and his other
compilations, he probably revised more proof-matter for press
than any other writer of his time. His practice as regards
orthography is, therefore, of some interest as representing what
was in all probability deemed to be the most enlightened
convention of the day.
To return now to the Doctor's immediate contemplation of
Boulogne, a city described in the Itineraries as containing rien
de remarquable. The story of the Capuchin [On page 21. A Capuchin
of the same stripe is in Pickle, ch. Ill. sq.] is very racy of
Smollett, while the vignette of the shepherd at the beginning of
Letter V. affords a first-rate illustration of his terseness.
Appreciate the keen and minute observation concentrated into the
pages that follow, [Especially on p. 34 to p. 40.] commencing
with the shrewd and economic remarks upon smuggling, and ending
with the lively description of a Boulonnais banquet, very
amusing, very French, very life-like, and very Smollettian.
In Letter V. the Doctor again is very much himself.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 7 of 141
Words from 6108 to 7111
of 143308
