When Knighton visited Nice on the King's business in December 1824 he wrote home to chilly Hampshire about the green peas and artichokes he had just eaten, and the roses, violets, jonquils and jasmine blooming in the hotel garden. By November 1827 he owned property there. Nice was popular with English people in uncertain health, and I suspect that Knighton's youngest daughter was not strong, but I have no details of the purchase or the property.
The British consul at Nice was Pierre Lacroix. Over the years Knighton mentioned him with respect, met his little girl, and grieved when she died.
Not all the British in Nice shared Knighton's affection for their consul. In June 1826 Thomas Major Pilton, who had lived in Nice for six years, petitioned the Foreign Secretary in London for Lacroix's removal. According to Pilton, so little happened at Nice that the consul's only duty was to sign passports, yet when British subjects needed Lacroix he was never to be found. Instead he ran numerous lucrative sidelines, all of which involved charging commission. If His Majesty's Government insisted on employing a consul at a port with no trade they would do better to appoint 'some Poor but Brave retired Officer who had Fought and Bled in his Country's defence, and whose health having suffered in the service required a Salubrious Climate to renovate it.'
Lacroix survived Pilton's criticisms.
This medical guide to Nice is from 1841.
http://archive.org/stream/39002086471399.med.yale.edu#page/n3/mode/2up
The British consul at Nice was Pierre Lacroix. Over the years Knighton mentioned him with respect, met his little girl, and grieved when she died.
Not all the British in Nice shared Knighton's affection for their consul. In June 1826 Thomas Major Pilton, who had lived in Nice for six years, petitioned the Foreign Secretary in London for Lacroix's removal. According to Pilton, so little happened at Nice that the consul's only duty was to sign passports, yet when British subjects needed Lacroix he was never to be found. Instead he ran numerous lucrative sidelines, all of which involved charging commission. If His Majesty's Government insisted on employing a consul at a port with no trade they would do better to appoint 'some Poor but Brave retired Officer who had Fought and Bled in his Country's defence, and whose health having suffered in the service required a Salubrious Climate to renovate it.'
Lacroix survived Pilton's criticisms.
This medical guide to Nice is from 1841.
http://archive.org/stream/39002086471399.med.yale.edu#page/n3/mode/2up
L'Ancien port de Nice by Isidore Dagnan (1794-1873). Municipal museum of Orange, Vaucluse.
Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancien_port_de_Nice_(FR-06000)_de_Isidore_Dagnan.jpg
Photographed by fr:Utilisateur:Semnoz
Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancien_port_de_Nice_(FR-06000)_de_Isidore_Dagnan.jpg
Photographed by fr:Utilisateur:Semnoz
Sources
- Knighton, Lady [Dorothea], Memoirs of Sir William Knighton, Bart., G.C.H., Keeper of the Privy Purse during the Reign of His Majesty King George the Fourth. Including his correspondence with many distinguished persons, 2 volumes (London: Richard Bentley, 1838)
- Chichester, West Sussex Record Office, Add Ms 22372
- Kew, The National Archives, FO 67/74
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