Peregrine Pickle in the Low Countries

Abstract

In chapters fifty-four to seventy-two of Peregrine Pickle Tobias Smollett gives a faithful though sketchy picture of the conditions of travel in the Low Countries. As to the sights, easily identified through contemporary travel journals, Smollett, writing a novel, stuck to the principal ones. They include the anonymous owners of collections of curiosities and works of art, who help determine the reader's picture of the inhabitants of the Austrian Netherlands and the United Provinces. Smollett agrees with most of his countrymen that the Flemish, apart from some members of their clergy, are more or less all right. As to the Dutch he differs from the typical tourist and conforms to the traditional view of them being rather odd characters, not to say uncivilized boors. In writing this section of the novel Smollett made use of his own travel experiences in 1749 and 1750. Many of the events referred to in the novel date from this period. However, fact and fiction are easily mixed: an eyewitness account of a theatrical performance in Amsterdam has been taken from Jean-Baptiste Dubos' Réflexions critiques sur la poésie et sur la peinture.