BRYDONE THE TOURIST.
(Vol. ix., pp. 138. 255.)
In reply to H. R. NÉE F., I beg to state that the writer of the remarks alluded to, on Brydone's Tour in Sicily and Malta, was the Rev. Robert Finch, M.A., formerly of Balliol College in this University, and who died about the year 1830. When I met with Mr. Finch's honest and somewhat blunt expression of opinion, recorded in a
copy which once belonged to him, of Brydone's Tour, I was quite ignorant of the hostile criticisms that had appeared at different times on that once popular work; but knowing Mr. Finch's high character for scholarship, and a knowledge of Italy, I thought his remark worth sending to a publication intended, like "N. & Q.," as "A Medium of Intercommunication for Literary Men, Antiquaries," &c., who are well able to examine a Note of the kind; and either to accept it as valid, or to reject it as untenable. On referring now to some standard works, in order to discover the opinions of learned men respecting Mr. Brydone's Tour, the first work I looked into was the Biographie Universelle (in eighty-three volumes, and not yet completed, Paris, 1811-1853), in vol. lix. of which the following observations occur, under the name of Brydone (Patrice):
"On lui a reproché d'avoir sacrifié la vérité au plaisir de raconter des choses piquantes. On l'avait accusé aussi d'avoir, par son indiscretion, suscité à l'Abbé Recupero, Chanoine de Catane, une persécution de la part de son évêque. Cette indiscretion n'eut pas heureusement un résultat aussi facheux; mais ses erreurs sur plusieurs points sont évidentes; il donne 4000 toises de hauteur à l'Etna qui n'en a que 1662; il commet d'autres fautes qui ont été relevées par les voyageurs venus après lui. Bartels (Briefe über Kalabrien und Sicilien, 2te Auflage, 3 Bd., 8vo., Götting. 1791-92) est même persuadé que le voyage au sommet de l'Etna, chef-d'œuvre de narration, n'est qu'un roman, et cet avis est partagé par d'autres."
Göthe says (Werke, Band xxviii. pp. 189, 190.: Stuttgart, 1830) that when he inquired at Catania respecting the best method of ascending Mount Etna, Chevalier Gioeni, the professor of natural history there, gave him the following advice and information:
"Als wir den Ritter um die Mittel befragten wie man sich benehmen müsse um den Aetna zu besteigen, wollte er von einer Wagniss nach dem Gipfel, besonders in der gegenwärtigen Jahreszeit gar nichts hören. Ueberhaupt, sagte er, nachdem er uns um Verzeihung gebeten, die hier ankommenden Fremden sehen die Sache für allzuleicht an; wir andern Nachbarn des Berges sind schon zufrieden, wenn wir ein paarmal in unserm Leben die beste Gelegenheit abgepasst und den Gipfel erreicht haben. Brydone, der zuerst durch seine Beschreibung die Lust nach diesem Feuergipfel entzündet, ist gar nicht hinauf gekommen."
From these quotations it is evident, that Mr. Finch was not singular in the belief he entertained; and certainly the scepticism of men so eminent as Professor Gioeni, Dr. Barthels, and Messrs. Eyriès and Parisot (the French writers whose names are attached to the Memoir in the Biog. Univ.), must be grounded on reasons deserving of attention. An ordinary reader of Brydone would accept the account of his ascent with implicit confidence; but when veteran professors, scientific men, and experienced travellers and scholars refuse to believe that he reached the summit of Etna, the most probable mode of accounting for their incredulity is, perhaps to suppose, that in their opinion he had mistaken some other part of the mountain for the real summit. Not having met with any detail of their reasons for disbelief, I am only able to state their bare assertion. In my opinion, the beautifully glowing and poetical description of the magic scene beheld by Brydone from the mountain—a description, the perusal of which, in youth, remains for ever after imprinted on the memory, like a passage from Addison or Gibbon, could only have been written by an actual spectator.
John Macray.
Oxford.