last exponent of the Grand Tour, said truly that the benefit of
travel varies inversely in proportion to its speed. The cheap
rapidity which has made our villes de plaisir and cotes d'azur
what they are, has made unwieldy boroughs of suburban villages,
and what the rail has done for a radius of a dozen miles, the
motor is rapidly doing for one of a score. So are we sped! But we
are to discuss not the psychology of travel, but the immediate
causes and circumstances of Smollett's arrival upon the territory
of Nice.

VI

Smollett did not interpret the ground-plan of the history of Nice
particularly well. Its colonisation from Massilia, its long
connection with Provence, its occupation by Saracens, its stormy
connection with the house of Anjou, and its close fidelity to the
house of Savoy made no appeal to his admiration. The most
important event in its recent history, no doubt, was the capture
of the city by the French under Catinat in 1706 (Louis XIV. being
especially exasperated against what he regarded as the treachery
of Victor Amadeus), and the razing to the ground of its famous
citadel. The city henceforth lost a good deal of its civic
dignity, and its morale was conspicuously impaired. In the war of
the Austrian succession an English fleet under Admiral Matthews
was told off to defend the territory of the Nicois against the
attentions of Toulon. This was the first close contact
experienced between England and Nice, but the impressions formed
were mutually favourable. The inhabitants were enthusiastic about
the unaccustomed English plan of paying in full for all supplies
demanded. The British officers were no less delighted with the