Like his “natural histories” of the 1840s, these songs were light satires of English society, in particular the tourists he had encountered en route to and from Chamonix-the elderly dowager constantly losing her luggage, the young gentleman struggling with a French phrasebook to order a meal. Smith himself stood upon the stage behind a lectern speaking in tandem with the changing vistas and occasionally breaking into song, sharing scraps of the hurdy-gurdy music he had learned from his Alpine guides, or presenting original compositions. William Beverley painted a series of large scenic views that, when pieced together, formed a single moving panorama similar to the one employed for The Overland Mail. Seven months later in March 1852, Ascent of Mont Blanc opened at the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly. … Whenever they chanced to point neck first down the slope, they started off with inconceivable velocity, leaping the crevices by their own impetus, until they were lost in the distance.” Arriving amid the glaciers by late afternoon, the party struck up an impromptu “high festival” and requisitioned the icy landscape for fairground competition: “A fine diversion was afforded by racing the empty bottles down the glacier. Smith comments sparingly on the arduous passages of the climb in favor of the convivial moments afforded to such a large and well-lardered party. The ledger marches steadily on, tethering a test of endurance to an exercise in consumption.

Together they enlisted no fewer than twenty guides and twenty porters to shoulder a staggering quantity of provisions: sixty bottles of table wine, six of Bordeaux, two of champagne, ten cheeses, twenty loaves, four legs of mutton, eleven large fowls, etc. Upon arriving in Chamonix, Smith pooled his resources with three gentlemen staying at his hotel who also intended to make the ascent.

In the written account of his journey, published in book form in 1853, Smith displays a determination to reach the top while also relishing the climb. Albert Smith, who, if not very instructive, is very entertaining.” A forerunner of the vacation slideshow, the format’s itinerary of images permitted Smith to skip nimbly among destinations, shuttling from anecdote to anecdote. “Verily, a pleasant evening may be spent in the company of Mr. In reviews of The Overland Mail, this method of presentation received praise for its combination of “the instructive diorama, which has of late, become so much the rage, and the humourous song and character sketch,” as did the lightweight charm of Smith himself. In 1849, he quit his editorial responsibilities to take a trip to Constantinople and upon his return in 1850 presented The Overland Mail, “a Literary, Pictorial, and Musical Entertainment.” For the purpose of illustration, Smith devised an early version of the moving panorama, a series of drawings stitched into a single long scroll that shifted from scene to scene as he narrated his journey.

These diverse literary pursuits notwithstanding, the persistent theme of Smith’s work is travel.

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