The value which Smollett put upon accuracy in the smallest
matters of detail is evinced by the corrections which he made in
the margin of a copy of the 1766 edition of the Travels. These
corrections, which are all in Smollett's own and unmistakably
neat handwriting, may be divided into four categories. In the
first place come a number of verbal emendations. Phrases are
turned, inverted and improved by the skilful "twist of the pen"
which becomes a second nature to the trained corrector of proofs;
there are moreover a few topographical corrigenda, suggested by
an improved knowledge of the localities, mostly in the
neighbourhood of Pisa and Leghorn, where there is no doubt that
these corrections were made upon the occasion of Smollett's
second visit to Italy in 1770. [Some not unimportant errata were
overlooked. Thus Smollett's representation of the droit d'aubaine
as a monstrous and intolerable grievance is of course an
exaggeration. (See Sentimental Journey; J. Hill Burton, The Scot
Abroad, 1881, p. 135; and Luchaire, Instit. de France.) On his
homeward journey he indicates that he travelled from Beaune to
Chalons and so by way of Auxerre to Dijon. The right order is
Chalons, Beaune, Dijon, Auxerre. As further examples of the zeal
with which Smollett regarded exactitude in the record of facts we
have his diurnal register of weather during his stay at Nice and
the picture of him scrupulously measuring the ruins at Cimiez
with packthread.] In the second place come a number of English
renderings of the citations from Latin, French, and Italian
authors. Most of these from the Latin are examples of Smollett's
own skill in English verse making. Thirdly come one or two
significant admissions of overboldness in matters of criticism,
as where he retracts his censure of Raphael's Parnassus in Letter
XXXIII. Fourthly, and these are of the greatest importance, come