Stuart Anderson, PhD, MRPharmS, is a senior lecturer in the
department of public health and policy at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine and president of the British Society for the History of Pharmacy
|
The “French Riviera” describes the eastern end of the Côte
d’Azure, stretching from Cannes in the west to Menton, near the Italian
border, in the east. Nice is between the two. Other resorts include Juan
les Pins, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Monaco and Monte Carlo.
The English love affair with the French Riviera dates back at least to
the middle of the 18th century. Originally, Italy was the focus of the
Grand Tour but, as relations with France improved, the virtues of the French
Riviera became better known.
The English and the French Riviera
By 1755 the first trickle of English aristocrats had already discovered
the sunny charms of a Riviera winter. Tobias Smollett, a doctor and novelist,
spent a year in Nice in 1763 and in 1766 he published a book called ‘Travels
through France and Italy,’ describing his
experiences.1 It was an instant success,
not only among the aristocracy but also among the increasing numbers of
the well-off
middle-class travellers who were reaping the benefits of capitalism and
colonialism.
Smollett’s book made the eastern Côte d’Azure irresistible
to the British. By 1787, there were enough British citizens spending their
winters in Nice to support a casino, an English theatre, an estate agent
and a newspaper. In 1830, when a frost killed all the orange trees, the
English community raised funds to give jobs to the unemployed. Funds were
used to build a seafront promenade, which is still known as “la Promenade
des Anglais”. Part of its purpose was to keep delicate English girls
away from the rough local
boys, a function which it patently failed to achieve.2
The 1830s saw a number of developments in the flow of English to the south
of France. The arrival of the railway greatly reduced journey times. The
rapid progress of the industrial revolution meant that a new group — les
nouveaux riches — could afford to winter abroad. Other resorts developed
along the eastern end of the Côte d’Azure and elsewhere in
southern France, such as Biarritz. Initially, the normal arrangement was
to rent a villa for the season but, with increasing numbers of visitors,
a number of high class hotels began to open and staying at a hotel became
the pattern in the later decades of the 19th century.
Those renting villas were following the example of an English aristocrat.
In 1834, the 3,000 or so fishermen and farmers of the
village of Cannes were going about their business when Lord Brougham, who
had
recently retired as Lord Chancellor, checked into its one and only hotel
with his sick daughter. They were stuck in the village
because a cholera epidemic in France had closed the border with Savoy,
now part of Italy. As they waited for the epidemic to pass, Lord Brougham
was so taken with the
climate and the scenery that he built a villa there and began to spend
every winter in the south of France. Naturally, Lord Brougham shared his
enthusiasm with his friends and
acquaintances back home and, before long, substantial numbers of them followed
his lead and built their own villas nearby.3
The journey to the south of France was a major undertaking in itself. Before
the railway arrived, it took at least two weeks to reach Nice from Calais.
But the railway was eventually extended to Nice in 1861, which became the
favoured resort for both the English and Russian elites — by 1890
some 20,000 of them were spending their winters there. Only 20 years later
the number of foreigners had increased to over 150,000 each winter.
Among the regular visitors to the Riviera was Silas Burroughs, who had
set up the pharmaceutical business of Burroughs Wellcome in 1878 with his
friend Henry Wellcome. In fact, Burroughs died suddenly in Monte Carlo
in February 1895, aged only 48, after he had contracted pneumonia. His
grave can be seen in Monte Carlo today.4
Queen
Victoria and the Riviera
Queen Victoria paid her first visit to France in 1843. This was her first
trip abroad. She and Prince Albert stayed at the Chateau d’Eu with
King Louis-Phillippe. But the King was forced to abdicate in 1848 and it
was another seven years before Victoria and Albert visited France again.
This time they were welcomed by the Emperor Napoleon III and the Empress
Eugenie. It was the first visit to Paris by an English monarch since Henry
VI was crowned King of France in 1431.5
This second visit made a great impression on the Queen, but it was another
26 years
before she considered visiting France again. By this time the Riviera
was becoming fashionable with the English. In 1879 she
accepted the offer of an Englishman, Charles Henfrey, to make use of
his villa at Baverno on Lake Maggiore in Northern Italy. Henfrey had
made a
fortune building railways in India and Italy. The Queen greatly enjoyed
this holiday, and when Henfrey offered her the use of his house at Menton,
she gladly accepted.
One of the reasons Queen Victoria went to Menton was to be with her son,
Prince Leopold, who suffered from haemophilia. The Queen arrived at Menton
for the first time in March 1882. She was 62 years old, and had been
on the throne for 45 years. She was
welcomed with brass bands and cheering crowds. This was to be the first
of nine visits to the Riviera, each lasting up to two months, staying
at a number of different resorts. In 1887 the Queen stayed in the Villa
Edelweiss
in Cannes, but later visits were to the relative quiet of the suburb
of Cimiez in Nice. Prince Leopold is credited with having introduced
croquet
to Nice, where he died in 1884. The Queen went to Cannes in 1887 as a
direct result of Prince Leopold’s death. She wanted to see the Villa Nevada
where he had died and the Church of St George that had been built in his
memory.
The Queen’s last visit to the Riviera was in 1899 when she was aged
79. She had planned to go again in 1900, but this visit was cancelled because
of the outbreak of the Boer War in October 1899. Medical services on the Riviera
One of the main reasons why the Queen and other foreigners visited the
Riviera was for their health. Menton had been heavily
promoted as a health resort by the president of its medical society, Dr
James Bennet. Dr Bennet had tuberculosis and, in 1859, he went to Menton “to
die in a quiet corner, like a wounded denizen of the forest”. To
his
surprise, his condition rapidly improved.
Many health benefits were attributed to the effects of winter sunshine.
Bennet kept careful meteorological records. He soon
discovered that the Riviera was not “a land of perpetual spring or
eternal summer”, but what he also found was that the relentless progression
of tuberculosis might be slowed, life could be prolonged and even cure
could be effected if the patient could winter in the south. Bennet’s
proof was that he was
surrounded in Menton by “a phalanx of cured and arrested consumption
cases”.
Those requiring medical attention could rely on the attention of a visiting
English physician or perhaps an English-speaking French doctor. The influx
of so many well-heeled but infirm English families attracted large numbers
of English doctors to attend to them.6 Menton alone had no fewer than 50
English doctors. Across the Riviera there would have been several hundred.
Pharmacy services on the Riviera
For less serious matters, or to have a prescription dispensed, a visit
to a pharmacy was
required. By law, these were owned and managed by French pharmacists, many
of
whom had little command of English. The answer was to employ competent
English
assistant pharmacists who had at least a basic fluency in French. As with
the doctors a not insignificant proportion of the pharmaceutical register
was engaged on overseas duties during the late Victorian period.
Advertisement in The Pharmaceutical Journal
and Transactions, 1 Nov 1890, pxxi
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The posts were normally described as “dispensers”. Suitable
candidates were recruited through an agent based in London, who
advertised appropriate opportunities in The Pharmaceutical Journal
and Transactions. Suitable applicants needed not only to be registered
as pharmaceutical chemists with the Pharma-ceutical Society of Great
Britain, but also to
be good salesmen so that they served well
behind the counter. Good salaries and working conditions were offered,
and passage was invariably paid. This was an attractive option and it
is clear that a substantial number of pharmacists took it up. For many,
the
annual visit to the south of France became a regular event. MacEwan’s ‘Art
of Dispensing’ of 1900 records that: “It is now becoming a
regular custom with English assistants, at least to the number of about
a hundred, yearly to go to the south of France for the winter season, and
many later on endeavour to get into a Parisian pharmacy.”7 The duties of the English pharmacist
Life on the Riviera for the visiting Victorians was as ordered and regimented
as it was at home. The English day began with breakfast, was followed
by a morning stroll, before
returning to the hotel to attend to correspondence. Then it was time for
lunch, followed by an afternoon stroll and five o’clock tea. Other
afternoon activities might include some gentle shopping, or listening to
a
concert at the bandstand.8
The English rarely ventured into “foreign” shops, relying almost
exclusively on familiar products imported from England. Every
conceivable need was met by an influx, in substantial numbers, of the relevant
trade or profession. The English imported nurses and ladies’ maids,
gardeners and grocers, lawyers and estate agents and, of course, pharmacists.
The working day of the English pharmacist was also ordered and disciplined.
Duties were generally confined to attending to American and English customers
and
dispensing their prescriptions. The life of the English pharmacist on the
Riviera has been described by one of them: “Our pharmacy is large
and well-arranged. The garçons do all the dusting and look after
the place from about six till eight in the morning, when we make an appearance. ‘We’ includes
a German, a Swiss and myself. I attend to the English and Americans, and
they see to the others. Each alternate Sunday I am on duty all day, except
three hours for meals. On week-days we are on duty alternately till seven
and ten, or half-past nine. We have an hour and a half for lunch at twelve
o’clock, and the same for dinner at seven.”7
Accommodation was provided with the job: “We sleep in, but board
out, and many of us go to the same restaurant, where, for 90 francs a month,
we eat, drink, and make merry.”7
Although the pharmacies were owned and managed by French pharmacists, the
English pharmacists felt completely at home in them. One of them has described
what pharmacies were like: “English patent medicines are greatly
in evidence. We have separate English labels for many of our specialties,
and of course for dispensing. In fact, we have so many English things about
on the counter and elsewhere that our customers remark on its being quite
like an English chemist’s shop. We have English weights and scales
and
measures and, in fact, everything there should be in a well-appointed pharmacy.”7
The often elderly or infirm nature of the clientele, particularly those
suffering from
tuberculosis, meant that there was a need for substantial quantities of
oxygen to assist with breathing problems. This was manufactured within
the pharmacy, although the method used appears somewhat Heath-Robinson: “Oxygen
is in great demand for chest and throat troubles. We make it ourselves
from potassium chlorate and manganese, store it in a small gasometer, and
retail it in India rubber bags.”7 Impact on pharmacy in Britain
The loss of considerable numbers of experienced dispensers to the Riviera
might, reasonably, have been of concern to employers back in Britain.
But experience of this kind appears to have been supported and encouraged
by the English pharmaceutical establishment of the time. MacEwan expressed
the prevailing view in 1900: “This sort of practice initiates the
English assistant thoroughly into French methods, he gets his French
brushed up, and then if he requires a better insight into French pharmacy
he may endeavour to get into an
establishment which is pure French, or where he will have a share of all
the dispensing done. The experience is worth getting, especially as a finish-off
to pharmaceutical studies, and after experience in a good English, Irish,
or Scotch dispensing house.”7
On Queen Victoria’s death in 1901 the throne was taken by her eldest
son Prince Edward. So began the Edwardian era. But the early years of the
20th century were the heyday for leisure, travel and adventure among the
English upper classes. Many thousands continued to spend the winter months
in the south of France. The Edwardian age officially came to an end in
1910, with the death of Edward VII, and his succession by George V. But
the “finish-off to pharmaceutical studies”7 available
on the French Riviera was to come to an abrupt end with the outbreak of
the Great
War, during which many of those who had enjoyed a taste of continental
life
returned there for a different purpose.
Young pharmacists taking a gap year at the beginning of the 21st century,
particularly those gaining pharmaceutical experience in other countries,
follow in the footsteps of their pioneering predecessors from the late
Victorian period. This article also illustrates that the increased mobility
of medical labour within the European Union that we are
seeing today had a precedent at the beginning of the 20th century. References
1. Blume M. Côte d’Azure: Inventing the French Riviera, London:
Thames and Hudson; 1992.
2. Facaros D, Pauls M. The South of France, London: Cadogan; 1997.
3. Howarth P. When the Riviera was ours. London: Routledge and Kegan
Paul; 1977.
4. Sheppard J. Death in Monte Carlo. Wellcome News 2002;31:28.
5. Nelson M.Queen Victoria and the discovery of the Riviera. London:
I.B. Tauris; 2001.
6. Pemble J. The Mediterranean passion: Victorians and Edwardians in
the south. Oxford: Clarendon Press; 1987.
7. MacEwan P. The Art of Dispensing. 9th edition. London: Chemist and
Druggist; 1900.
8. Gerard-Sharp L. The French Riviera, London: APA Publications; 1999. |
The
Pharmaceutical Journal