‘The Man of Mont Blanc’ peepshow climbs to £3600
ALBERT Richard Smith was obsessed from childhood with the idea that he might one day climb Mont Blanc. There were false starts and setbacks, financial and social, but in 1851 he finally got to stand on the peak of his dreams and spent the next few years building a small fortune on the strength of that achievement.
There is no doubting Smith's enthusiasm for the mountains, but he was also a self-publicist who expl…