The Second Volume, Which
Affords Admirable Specimens Of Smollett's Neatly Written
Marginalia, Has Been Exhibited In A Show-Ease In The King's
Library.
The corrections that Smollett purposed to make in the Travels are
now for the second time embodied in a printed edition of the
text.
At the same time the text has been collated with the
original edition of 1766, and the whole has been carefully
revised. The old spelling has been, as far as possible, restored.
Smollett was punctilious in such matters, and what with his
histories, his translations, his periodicals, and his other
compilations, he probably revised more proof-matter for press
than any other writer of his time. His practice as regards
orthography is, therefore, of some interest as representing what
was in all probability deemed to be the most enlightened
convention of the day.
To return now to the Doctor's immediate contemplation of
Boulogne, a city described in the Itineraries as containing rien
de remarquable. The story of the Capuchin [On page 21. A Capuchin
of the same stripe is in Pickle, ch. Ill. sq.] is very racy of
Smollett, while the vignette of the shepherd at the beginning of
Letter V. affords a first-rate illustration of his terseness.
Appreciate the keen and minute observation concentrated into the
pages that follow, [Especially on p. 34 to p. 40.] commencing
with the shrewd and economic remarks upon smuggling, and ending
with the lively description of a Boulonnais banquet, very
amusing, very French, very life-like, and very Smollettian.
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