The GRAND TOUR which every young
aristocrat made with his tutor, on coming of age, only included
crossing from France into Italy by the Alps. It was the occurrence
of an unusually severe winter in Switzerland that turned Brougham
aside into the longer and less travelled route VIA the Corniche,
the marvellous Roman road at that time fallen into oblivion, and
little used even by the local peasantry.
During the tedious weeks while his leg was mending, Lord Brougham
amused himself by exploring the surrounding country in his
carriage, and was quick to realize the advantages of the climate,
and appreciate the marvellous beauty of that coast. Before the
broken member was whole again, he had bought a tract of land and
begun a villa. Small seed, to furnish such a harvest! To the
traveller of to-day the Riviera offers an almost unbroken chain of
beautiful residences from Marseilles to Genoa.
A Briton willingly follows where a lord leads, and Cannes became
the centre of English fashion, a position it holds to-day in spite
of many attractive rivals, and the defection of Victoria who comes
now to Cimiez, back of Nice, being unwilling to visit Cannes since
the sudden death there of the Duke of Albany. A statue of Lord
Brougham, the "discoverer" of the littoral, has been erected in the
sunny little square at Cannes, and the English have in many other
ways, stamped the city for their own.
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