=
s. i. APRIL 16, mi NOTES AND QUERIES.
309
hools had grammars which laid down this
new doctrine, but I cannot recall the writer's
name or the date. Can any of your readers
inform me with whom this innovation ori-
ginated, and whether there was any con-
troversy on the subject, or in what manner it
came to get a footing in elementary educa-
tion ? J. EARLE.
Oxford.
SEERS FAMILY.! should be glad to have the genealogy to enable me to discover the ancestors of Michael Seers, of Tring Grove, Herts, who married Mary, daughter of Sir John Peachy, Bart, (he died 1744, according to Berry's * Sussex Genealogies,' p. 106), and also of John Seer, Sheriff of Hertfordshire in 1723. Can any one inform me whether the spelling of these names is derived from Sers or Sirr (respecting which families a query appeared 8 th S. xii. 429), or refer me to any works giving information ? FENGATE.
SMOLLETT: HIS DEATH AND BURIAL.
(9 th S. i. 201.)
To the Englishman resident in Leghorn MR. BUCHAN TELFER'S statement that Smollett is not buried in the old British cemetery there comes as something of a shock, and he devoutly hopes that MR. TELFER may be mis- taken. When the chance English traveller came to Leghorn the resident, despairing of impressing mm with the recondite fascina- tions of what MR. TELFER somewhat too unkindly calls an "unattractive seaport town," Avas able hitherto to take him to the
grave of the celebrated author of ' Humphry linker.' I hope to show that MR. TELFER has not yet proved his case to the hilt. But first of all I will deal with the date of Smollett's death.
The monument in the cemetery and the "consular registers," or, to give them the name they bear on the cover, the " Chapel Registers of the Protestant Society at Leg- horn," give the date as 16 September, 1773; Sir Walter Scott gives it as 21 October, 1771 ; Sir Horace Mann as 17 September, 1771. There exists important testimony to show that Sir Horace is absolutely accurate. Smollett, in his last days, was attended by two medical men Thomas Garden, doctor to the British Factory, and Giovanni Gentili, a Tuscan physician, happily given to recording extensive notes on his patients and medical matters generally. These notes are preserved in nine MS, volumes in the Kiccardiana
Library at Florence (Cod. 3280, et seq.\ I
have not seen them, but the learned Prof,
Francesco Pera, in his ' Curiosita Li vornesi '
(p. 316), quotes Dr. Gentili's observations
relating to Smollett. The following is a
literal and therefore somewhat uncouth trans-
lation:
" M. (xic) Smollett, aged fifty, a man of historical talent (Sept. 1772), asthmatic, suffers from colic, insomnia, diarrhoea, convulsions, fever. Has some vigour; very fiery and ardent temperament; -will not drink. Visited him for the first time on Saturday evening, 14 September. Dr. Garden on the loth proposed blisters. He has an eruption that looks poisonous. It is thought that he may have become infected with it at the new rooms of S.P. (le nuove atanze di S. P.). His female relations are healthy. He dies asthmatic and wasted away, without any effort to help himself. He passed away the night of 17 September. A cordial of Rhine wine had been ordered him, ac. di can. zucch. He was a man of lively talent, bearing all the distempers of life, but almost misanthropic. He lived eighteen
Sears with his wife in perfect harmony; nad a aughter by her who wrote poetry (poztava). He was of a very irascible temperament, but thoughtful and devoted to political and historical studies."
Now 14 September in 1771 fell upon a Saturday, and therefore, having regard to Sir Horace Mann's very positive statement, I look upon Gentili's September, 1772 (it was leap year too), as an error, and consider that, thanks to Prof. Pera's painstaking researches, we may now take it as an established fact that Smollett died on the night of Tuesday, 17 September, 1771.
MR. TELFER states that the entry in the register of the Protestant Society, which runs (the register is before me as I write), "Dr. Tobias George Smollett died y e 16th Sepr 1773 & was buried the day following by James Haggarth," is " considered a forgery so far as the chaplain is concerned." It is, I think, no forgery, but an endeavour (most innocent if very irregular) to supply an omis- sion. There is no attempt to imitate the Rev. James Haggarth's holograph entries or his signature. When he registered a burial the entry ran " buried by me Jas. Haggarth." The Smollett entry reads " buried by James Haggarth There are several such irregular additions to the register, always in the same handwriting, and I am of opinion, after a careful examination, that it is the handwriting of the Rev. Thomas Hall, Mr. Haggarth's successor. I should suppose that Mr. Hall, noticing from chance circumstances that the registers were incomplete, did what he could to supply omissions. One such addition of his, indeed, is followed by a statement of his reasons for making it, and is backed by his signature. It is therefore almost certain that the Smollett entry in the register was taken
