Travels Through France And Italy, Tobias Smollett [love novels in english .TXT] 📗
- Author: Tobias Smollett
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Of The Belgian Who Sought To Conciliate His French Neighbour By
Remarking, "Je Vois Que Vous Etes Français, Monsieur, Parceque
Vous Mangez Beaucoup De Pain," And The Frenchman's Retort, "Je
Vois Que Vous Etes Lye Monsieur, Parceque Vous Mangez Beaucoup
De Tout!" From Frejus
Smollett Proceeds To Toulon, Repeating The Old Epigram That "The
King Of France Is Greater At Toulon Than At Versailles." The
Weather Is So Pleasant That The Travellers Enjoy A Continual
Concert Of "Nightingales" From Vienne To Fontainebleau. The
"Douche" Of Aix-Les-Bains Having Been Explained, Smollett And His
Party Proceeded Agreeably To Avignon, Where By One Of The Strange
Coincidences Of Travel He Met His Old Voiturier Joseph "So
Embrowned By The Sun That He Might Have Passed For An Iroquois."
In Spite Of Joseph's Testimonial The "Plagues Of Posting" Are
Still In The Ascendant, And Smollett Is Once More Generous Of
Good Advice. Above All, He Adjures Us When Travelling Never To
Omit To Carry A Hammer And Nails, A Crowbar, An Iron Pin Or Two,
A Large Knife, And A Bladder Of Grease. Why Not A Lynch Pin,
Which We Were So Carefully Instructed How To Inquire About In
Murray's Conversation For Travellers?
Part 7 Pg 44
But-The History Of His Troublous Travels Is Drawing To An End.
From Lyons The Route Is Plain Through Macon, Chalons, Dijon,
Auxerre, Sells, And Fontainebleau--The Whole Itinerary Almost
Exactly Anticipates That Of Talfourd's Vacation Tour One Hundred
And Ten Years Later, Except That On The Outward Journey Talfourd
Sailed Down The Rhone.
Smollett's Old Mental Grievances And Sores Have Been Shifted And
To Some Extent, Let Us Hope, Dissipated By His Strenuous
Journeyings, And In June 1765, After An Absence Of Two Years, He
Is Once More Enabled To Write,
"You Cannot Imagine What Pleasure I Feel While I Survey The White
Cliffs Of Dover At This Distance [From Boulogne]. Not That I Am
At All Affected By The Nescio Qua Dulcedine Natalis Soli Of
Horace.
"That Seems To Be A Kind Of Fanaticism, Founded On The Prejudices
Of Education, Which Induces A Laplander To Place The Terrestrial
Paradise Among The Snows Of Norway, And A Swiss To Prefer The
Barren Mountains Of Soleure To The Fruitful Plains Of Lombardy. I
Am Attached To My Country, Because It Is The Land Of Liberty,
Cleanliness, And Convenience; But I Love It Still More Tenderly,
As The Scene Of All My Interesting Connections, As The Habitation
Of My Friends, For Whose Conversation, Correspondence, And Esteem
I Wish Alone To Live."
For The Time Being It Cannot Be Doubted That The Hardships
Smollett Had To Undergo On His Italian Journey, By Sea And Land,
And The Violent Passions By Which He Was Agitated Owing To The
Conduct Of Refractory Postilions And Extortionate Innkeepers,
Contributed Positively To Brace Up And Invigorate His
Constitution. He Spoke Of Himself Indeed As "Mended By Ill-Treatment"
Not Unlike Tavernier, The Famous Traveller,--Said To
Have Been Radically Cured Of The Gout By A Turkish Aga In Egypt,
Who Gave Him The Bastinado Because He Would Not Look At The Head
Of The Bashaw Of Cairo. But Fizes Was Right After All In His
Swan-Prescription, For Poor Smollett's Cure Was Anything But A
Radical One. His Health Soon Collapsed Under The Dreary Round Of
Incessant Labour At Chelsea. His Literary Faculty Was Still
Maturing And Developing. His Genius Was Mellowing, And A Later
Work Might Have Eclipsed Clinker. But It Was Not To Be. He Had A
Severe Relapse In The Winter. In 1770 He Had Once More To Take
Refuge From Overwork On The Sunny Coast He Had Done So Much To
Popularize Among His Countrymen, And It Was Near Leghorn That He
Died On 17th September 1771.
Part 7 Pg 45
Anno Aetatis 51.
Ehev! Qvam Procvl A Patria!
Prope Libvrni Portvm, In Italia
Jacet Sepvltvs.
Thomas Seccombe. Acton, May 1907.
Part 7 Letter 1 (Boulogne Sur Mer, June 23, 1763.) Pg 46
Dear Sir,--You Laid Your Commands Upon Me At Parting, To
Communicate From Time To Time The Observations I Should Make In
The Course Of My Travels And It Was An Injunction I Received With
Pleasure. In Gratifying Your Curiosity, I Shall Find Some
Amusement To Beguile The Tedious Hours, Which, Without Some Such
Employment, Would Be Rendered Insupportable By Distemper And
Disquiet.
You Knew, And Pitied My Situation, Traduced By Malice, Persecuted
By Faction, Abandoned By False Patrons, And Overwhelmed By The
Sense Of A Domestic Calamity, Which It Was Not In The Power Of
Fortune To Repair.
You Know With What Eagerness I Fled From My Country As A Scene Of
Illiberal Dispute, And Incredible Infatuation, Where A Few
Worthless Incendiaries Had, By Dint Of Perfidious Calumnies And
Atrocious Abuse, Kindled Up A Flame Which Threatened All The
Horrors Of Civil Dissension.
I Packed Up My Little Family In A Hired Coach, And Attended By My
Trusty Servant, Who Had Lived With Me A Dozen Of Years, And Now
Refused To Leave Me, Took The Road To Dover, In My Way To The
South Of France, Where I Hoped The Mildness Of The Climate Would
Prove Favourable To The Weak State Of My Lungs.
Part 7 Letter 1 (Boulogne Sur Mer, June 23, 1763.) Pg 47
You Advised Me To Have Recourse Again To The Bath Waters, From
The Use Of Which I Had Received Great Benefit The Preceding
Winter: But I Had Many Inducements To Leave England. My Wife
Earnestly Begged I Would Convey Her From A Country Where Every
Object Served To Nourish Her Grief: I Was In Hopes That A
Succession Of New Scenes Would Engage Her Attention, And
Gradually Call Off Her Mind From A Series Of Painful Reflections;
And I Imagined The Change Of Air, And A Journey Of Near A
Thousand Miles, Would Have A Happy Effect Upon My Own
Constitution. But, As The Summer Was Already Advanced, And The
Heat Too Excessive For Travelling In Warm Climates, I Proposed
Staying At Boulogne Till The Beginning Of Autumn, And In The Mean
Time To Bathe In The Sea, With A View To Strengthen And Prepare
My Body For The Fatigues Of Such A Long Journey.
A Man Who Travels With A Family Of Five Persons, Must Lay His
Account With A Number Of Mortifications; And Some Of These I Have
Already Happily Overcome. Though I Was Well Acquainted With The
Road To Dover, And Made Allowances Accordingly, I Could Not Help
Being Chagrined At The Bad Accommodation And Impudent Imposition
To Which I Was Exposed. These I Found The More Disagreeable, As
We Were Detained A Day Extraordinary On The Road, In Consequence
Of My Wife's Being Indisposed.
I Need Not Tell You This Is The Worst Road In England With
Respect To The Conveniences Of Travelling, And Must Certainly
Impress Foreigners With An Unfavourable Opinion Of The Nation In
General. The Chambers Are In General Cold And Comfortless, The
Beds Paultry, The Cookery Execrable, The Wine Poison, The
Attendance Bad, The Publicans Insolent, And The Bills Extortion;
There Is Not A Drop Of Tolerable Malt Liquor To Be Had From
London To Dover.
Every Landlord And Every Waiter Harangued Upon The Knavery Of A
Publican In Canterbury, Who Had Charged The French Ambassador
Forty Pounds For A Supper That Was Not Worth Forty Shillings.
They Talked Much Of Honesty And Conscience; But When They
Produced Their Own Bills, They Appeared To Be All Of The Same
Family And Complexion. If It Was A Reproach Upon The English
Nation, That An Innkeeper Should Pillage Strangers At That Rate;
It Is A Greater Scandal, That The Same Fellow Should Be Able To
Keep His House Still Open. I Own, I Think It Would Be For The
Honour Of The Kingdom To Reform The Abuses Of This Road; And In
Particular To Improve The Avenue To London By The Way Of Kent-Street,
Which Is A Most Disgraceful Entrance To Such An Opulent
City. A Foreigner, In Passing Through This Beggarly And Ruinous
Part 7 Letter 1 (Boulogne Sur Mer, June 23, 1763.) Pg 48Suburb, Conceives Such An Idea Of Misery And Meanness, As All The
Wealth And Magnificence Of London And Westminster Are Afterwards
Unable To Destroy. A Friend Of Mine, Who Brought A Parisian From
Dover In His Own Post-Chaise, Contrived To Enter Southwark After
It Was Dark, That His Friend Might Not Perceive The Nakedness Of
This Quarter. The Stranger Was Much Pleased With The Great Number
Of Shops Full Of Merchandize, Lighted Up To The Best Advantage.
He Was Astonished At The Display Of Riches In Lombard-Street And
Cheapside. The Badness Of The Pavement Made Him Find The Streets
Twice As Long As They Were. They Alighted In Upper Brook-Street
By Grosvenor-Square; And When His Conductor Told Him They Were
Then About The Middle Of London, The Frenchman Declared, With
Marks Of Infinite Surprize, That London Was Very Near As Long As
Paris.
On My Arrival At Dover I Payed Off My Coachman, Who Went Away
With A Heavy Heart. He Wanted Much To Cross The Sea, And
Endeavoured To Persuade Me To Carry
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