310
NOTES AND QUERIES. [fl* s. L APRIL IG, m
by Mr. Hall from the grave which he found
in the cemetery, and not, as MR. TELFER
supposes, that the date on the monument- was
taken from the register. Mr. Hall came to
Leghorn in 1783.
Where did Smollett die? Not near Leghorn, MR. TELFER says, otherwise his Majesty's consul, Sir John Dick, would have reported the death and burial officially to the Secretary of State or to his Majesty's Envoy at Florence. Not necessarily, I think. It is no part of the duty of consular officers to report officially the deaths of distinguished writers. If Mr. Ruskin were to die in Leghorn I should respectfully attend his funeral, but I should make no report on the subject to my official superiors. Even Sir Horace Mann, in the despatch quoted by MR. TELFER, adds the news of Smollett's death in an unofficial post- script written in his own hand. Then, again, a consul's duties are not confined to a city, but extend over a district : and if it had been Sir John Dick's duty to report Smollett's burial in Leghorn, it would equally have been his duty to report the burial near Leghorn.
But Smollett certainly did not die in Leghorn. Neither, I think, did he die at Montenero, and certainly not on " the banks of the Arno, outside the city of Pisa," for in the latter case he would have been attended by a Pisan medical man, and not by Dr. Gentili, who lived in Leghorn. A persistent local tradition points to his residence in 1771 as being the Villa Gamba at Antignano. Antignano is a fishing village and small sea- bathing place some four miles to the south of Leghorn. The villa itself (a charming spot) is outside the village, about three-quarters of a mile further south on the road to Rome. It lies well back from the road, and is placed at some altitude. Locally it is known as "II Giardino," from the great beauty of its situa- tion and its grounds. It lies below the range of the Montenero hills, but is ecclesiastically in the parish of Antignano. It is quite con- ceivable, however, that Smollett dated his letters from Montenero, because, being near Montenero, and it being a much better known place than Antignano, he may well have imagined that he was in Montenero. A letter addressed to him "Montenero" would cer- tainly ^have found him. The Villa Gamba came into the possession of the Niccolai Gamba family about 1820. In Smollett's day it appears to nave been grand-ducal property, a circumstance which may perhaps enable me to establish his residence there on my next visit to Florence. The villa was subse- quently acquired by the Sampieri family.
Dr. Giuseppe Vivoli, author of the voluminous
' Annali di Livorno,' published in 1844, states
positively that Smollett wrote 'Humphry
Clinker ' at the Villa Gamba and died there,
and that English travellers repair thither as
to a place of pilgrimage. The present pro-
prietor of the villa, Signer Eugenio Niccolai
Gamba, informs me that he sleeps in the
?oom where Smollett died.
And where was Smollett buried? Not on his own property, for he had none. And is it likely that his body was taken from Antig- nano, almost past the gates of the British cemetery, for interment in some private pro- perty on the banks of the Arno? Surely not. Where then could he, a Protestant, be buried except in the British cemetery? As regards the error in the date of the monu- ment, it can only be accounted for by ignorance or carelessness, for the date itself is proof that it was erected some years after Smollett's death. As regards the plain monument said to have been erected by his widow, bearing an epitaph written by Dr. Armstrong, I should suppose that it was an intention of the widow never carried into effect, and that the "spirited inscription" got no further than the paper on which Dr. Armstrong wrote it.
The inscription on the column erected by Smollett's cousin on the banks of the Leyen states that the great novelist is buried " prope Liburni portum in Italia." It would be natural to infer from this that Smollett was buried near, but not in, Leghorn. But the old cemetery was at the time of Smollett's death outside the town walls. It is now in Leg- horn by a subsequent extension of the walls; it was then outside Leghorn, and therefore "prope" would be quite consistent with burial in the old cemetery. To this day old people among the "popolo" in its neighbour- hood say, Vado a Ltvorno (" I am going into Leghorn"), though the new enclosure has placed their quarter well within the town these last sixty years.
Still MR. TELFER has in favour of his theor the fact that there is no regular entry of tto burial in the register. There is evidence in the register to show that Mr. Haggarth was in Leghorn in August and October, 1771, but none to show that he was either present or absent in September. That the registers were not so carefully kept as might have been wished Mr. Hall's additions prove, but it is certainly difficult to understand how so great a celebrity as Smollett could come to have been forgotten. If the grave were opened the point might be set at rest. And would it not be well that the correct dat<? ot
