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On other grounds than those of health he was glad to shake the dust of Britain from his feet。 He speaks himself of being traduced by malice; persecuted by faction; abandoned by false patrons; complaints which will remind the reader; perhaps; of George Borrow's 〃Jeremiad;〃 to the effect that he had been beslavered by the venomous foam of every sycophantic lacquey and unscrupulous renegade in the three kingdoms。 But Smollett's griefs were more serious than what an unkind reviewer could inflict。 He had been fined and imprisoned for defamation。 He had been grossly caricatured as a creature of Bute; the North British favourite of George III。; whose tenure of the premiership occasioned riots and almost excited a revolution in the metropolis。 Yet after incurring all this unpopularity at a time when the populace of London was more inflamed against Scotsmen than it has ever been before or since; and having laboured severely at a paper in the ministerial interest and thereby aroused the enmity of his old friend John Wilkes; Smollett had been unceremoniously thrown over by his own chief; Lord Bute; on the ground that his paper did more to invite attack than to repel it。 Lastly; he and his wife had suffered a cruel bereavement in the loss of their only child; and it was partly to supply a change from the scene of this abiding sorrow; that the present journey was undertaken。
The first stages and incidents of the expedition were not exactly propitious。 The Dover Road was a byword for its charges; the Via Alba might have been paved with the silver wrung from reluctant and indignant passengers。 Smollett characterized the chambers as cold and comfortless; the beds as 〃paultry〃 (with 〃frowsy;〃 a favourite word); the cookery as execrable; wine poison; attendance bad; publicans insolent; and bills extortion; concluding with the grand climax that there was not a drop of tolerable malt liquor to be had from London to Dover。 Smollett finds a good deal to be said for the designation of 〃a den of thieves〃 as applied to that famous port (where; as a German lady of much later date once complained; they 〃boot ze Bible in ze bedroom; but ze devil in ze bill〃; and he grizzles lamentably over the seven guineas; apart from extras; which he had to pay for transport in a Folkestone cutter to Boulogne Mouth。
Having once arrived at Boulogne; Smollett settled down regularly to his work as descriptive reporter; and the letters that he wrote to his friendly circle at home fall naturally into four groups。 The first Letters from II。 to V。 describe with Hogarthian point; prejudice and pungency; the town and people of Boulogne。 The second group; Letters VI。…XII。; deal with the journey from Boulogne to Nice by way of Paris; Lyon; Nimes; and Montpellier。 The third group; Letters XIII。 …XXIV。; is devoted to a more detailed and particular delineation of Nice and the Nicois。 The fourth; Letters XXV。…XLI。; describes the Italian expedition and the return journey to Boulogne en route for England; where the party arrive safe home in July 1765。
Smollett's account of Boulogne is excellent reading; it forms an apt introduction to the narrative of his journey; it familiarises us with the milieu; and reveals to us in Smollett a man of experience who is both resolute and capable of getting below the surface of things。 An English possession for a short period in the reign of the Great Harry; Boulogne has rarely been less in touch with England than it was at the time of Smollett's visit。 Even then; however; there were three small colonies; respectively; of English nuns; English Jesuits; and English Jacobites。 Apart from these and the English girls in French seminaries it was estimated ten years after Smollett's sojourn there that there were twenty…four English families in residence。 The locality has of course always been a haunting place for the wandering tribes of English。 Many well…known men have lived or died here both native and English。 Adam Smith must have been there very soon after Smollett。 So must Dr。 John Moore and Charles Churchill; one of the enemies provoked by the Briton; who went to Boulogne to meet his friend Wilkes and died there in 1764。 Philip Thicknesse the traveller and friend of Gainsborough died there in 1770。 After long search for a place to end his days in Thomas Campbell bought a house in Boulogne and died there; a few months later; in 1844。 The house is still to be seen; Rue St。 Jean; within the old walls; it has undergone no change; and in 1900 a marble tablet was put up to record the fact that Campbell lived and died there。 The other founder of the University of London; Brougham; by a singular coincidence was also closely associated with Boulogne。 'Among the occupants of the English cemetery will be found the names of Sir Harris Nicolas; Basil Montagu; Smithson Pennant; Sir William Ouseley; Sir William Hamilton; and Sir C。 M。 Carmichael。 And among other literary celebrities connected with the place; apart from Dickens (who gave his impressions of the place in Household Words; November 1854) we should include in a brief list; Charles Lever; Horace Smith; Wilkie Collins; Mrs。 Henry Wood; Professor York Powell; the Marquis of Steyne (Lord Seymour); Mrs。 Jordan; Clark Russell; and Sir Conan Doyle。 There are also memorable associations with Lola Montes; Heinrich Heine; Becky Sharpe; and above all Colonel Newcome。 My first care in the place was to discover the rampart where the Colonel used to parade with little Clive。 Among the native luminaries are Daunou; Duchenne de Boulogne; one of the foremost physiologists of the last century; an immediate predecessor of Charcot in knowledge of the nervous system; Aug。 Mariette; the Egyptologist; Aug。 Angellier; the biographer of Burns; Sainte…Beuve; Prof。 Morel; and 〃credibly;〃 Godfrey de Bouillon; of whom Charles Lamb wrote 〃poor old Godfrey; he must be getting very old now。〃 The great Lesage died here in 1747。' The antiquaries still dispute about Gessoriacum; Godfrey de Bouillon; and Charlemagne's Tour。 Smollett is only fair in justifying for the town; the older portions of which have a strong medieval suggestion; a standard of comparison slightly more distinguished than Wapping。 He never lets us forget that he is a scholar of antiquity; a man of education and a speculative philosopher。 Hence his references to Celsus and Hippocrates and his ingenious etymologies of wheatear and samphire; more ingenious in the second case than sound。 Smollett's field of observation had been wide and his fund of exact information was unusually large。 At Edinburgh he had studied medicine under Monro and John Gordon; in company with such able and distinguished men as William Hunter; Cullen; Pitcairn; Gregory; and Armstrongand the two last mentioned were among his present correspondents。 As naval surgeon at Carthagena he had undergone experience such as few literary men can claim; and subsequently as compiler; reviewer; party journalist; historian; translator; statistician; and lexicographer; he had gained an amount of miscellaneous information such as falls to the lot of very few minds of his order of intelligence。 He h