rouse, 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