uld now be
considered a very mild and pertinent piece of public criticism against
a faineant admiral led to imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison, plus
a fine of L100. Then came a quarrel with an old friend, Wilkes--not the
least vexatious result of that forlorn championship of Bute's
government in The Briton. And finally, in part, obviously, as a
consequence of all this nervous breakdown, a succession of severe
catarrhs, premonitory in his case of consumption, the serious illness
of the wife he adored, and the death of his darling, the "little Boss"
of former years, now on the verge of womanhood. To a man of his
extraordinarily strong affections such a series of ills was too
overwhelming. He resolved to break up his establishment at Chelsea, and
to seek a remedy in flight from present evils to a foreign residence.
Dickens went to hibernate on the Riviera upon a somewhat similar
pretext, though fortunately without the same cause, as far as his
health was concerned.

Now note another very characteristic feature of these Travel Letters.
Smollett went abroad not for pleasure, but virtually of necessity. Not
only were circumstances at home proving rather too much for him, but
also, like Stevenson, he was specifically "ordered South" by his
physicians, and he went with the deliberate intention of making as much
money as possible out of his Travel papers. In his case he wrote long
letters on the spot to his medical and other friends at home. When he
got back in the summer of 1765 one of his first cares was to put the
Letters together. It had always been his intention carefully to revise
them for the press. But when he got back to London he found so many
other tasks awaiting him that were so far more pressing, that this part
of his purpose was but very imperfectly carried out. The Letters
appeared pretty much as he wrote them. Their social and documentary
value is thereby considerably enhanced, for they were nearly all
written close down to the facts. The original intention had been to go
to Montpellier, which was still, I suppose, the most popular health
resort in Southern Europe. The peace of 1763 opened the way. And this
brings us to another feature of distinction in regard to Smollett's
Travels. Typical Briton, perfervid Protestant of Britain's most
Protestant period, and insular enrage though he doubtless was, Smollett
had knocked about the world a good deal and had also seen something of
the continent of Europe. He wa