Smollett

TOBIAS SMOLLETT (1721 - 1771)

Smollett, the prejudiced and irascible Scots novelist was satirised by Laurence Sterne as 'the learned Smelfungus', after the publication of his scathing travel book on France and Italy. David Hume, who knew him better, considered him to be a cocoanut, rough only on the outside.

In his best novel, The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, Smollett has his characters travel north to Scotland, as he did himself in 1766, via Durham and Newcastle. Smollett was a hard man to impress:

'The city of Durham appears like a confused heap of stones and brick, accumulates so as to cover a mountain, round which a river winds its brawling course. The streets are generally narrow, dark and unpleasant, and many of them are almost impassable in consequence of their declivity. The cathedral is a huge gloomy pile...'

Newcastle comes off even worse. In the novel, some wag there terrifies the servants by telling them that all there is to eat in Scotland is oat-meal and sheep's heads. Smollett knew his way around; in Roderick Random the hero the is recognised by his old school-friend Strap, who is working in a barber shop in Pilgrim Street. The portrait of the rascally Horace-quoting inn-keeper in that novel is probably based on Richard Cooper, a teacher-publican in West Auckland, famous for his pretty daughter and sharp business practice.

Of Northumberland - 'a fine county' - Smollett remarks, with some patriotic glee, that the south side of the Tweed is less prosperous and populous than the Scottish side, testifying to the formidable presence of the Scots in days gone by.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
TOBIAS SMOLLETT (1721 - 1771) Smollett, the prejudiced and irascible Scots novelist was satirised by Laurence Sterne as 'the learned Smelfungus', after the publication of his scathing travel book on France and Italy. David Hume, who knew him better, considered him to be a cocoanut, rough only on the outside. In his best novel, The Expedition of Humphrey Clinker, Smollett has his characters travel north to Scotland, as he did himself in 1766, via Durham and Newcastle. Smollett was a hard man to impress: 'The city of Durham appears like a confused heap of stones and brick, accumulates so as to cover a mountain, round which a river winds its brawling course. The streets are generally narrow, dark and unpleasant, and many of them are almost impassable in consequence of their declivity. The cathedral is a huge gloomy pile...' Newcastle comes off even worse. In the novel, some wag there terrifies the servants by telling them that all there is to eat in Scotland is oat-meal and sheep's heads. Smollett knew his way around; in Roderick Random the hero the is recognised by his old school-friend Strap, who is working in a barber shop in Pilgrim Street. The portrait of the rascally Horace-quoting inn-keeper in that novel is probably based on Richard Cooper, a teacher-publican in West Auckland, famous for his pretty daughter and sharp business practice. Of Northumberland - 'a fine county' - Smollett remarks, with some patriotic glee, that the south side of the Tweed is less prosperous and populous than the Scottish side, testifying to the formidable presence of the Scots in days gone by.
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