#late 1700s

‘One wit, like a knuckle of ham in soup, gives a zest and flavour to the dish, but more than one serves only to spoil the pottage’.
~ From The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771)

Happy 300th Birthday to the delightful Scottish author Tobias Smollett (1721-1771)!

Smollett, whose literary output included plays, poetry, travel narratives and such wonderfully picaresque novels as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) and The Adventures of Peregrin Pickle (1751), was a great influence on later writers such as Charles Dickens. George Orwell referred to him as, 'Scotland’s best novelist’.

Shown here is a selection of Smollett’s books - some in their first edition - from the Turnbull Library’s Rare Books and Fine Printing Collection.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
“The Honourable Mrs Graham” (1775-1777)
Oil on canvas
Rococo
Located in the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland

François-André Vincent (1746-1816)
“The Ploughing Lesson” (1798)
Oil on canvas
Neoclassical
Located in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France

Augustin Pajou (1730-1809)
“Mercury” (1780)
Marble
Located in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

Daniël Dupré (1751-1817)
“Arcadian Landscape with Setting Sun” (1792-1809)
Oil on canvas
Located in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

A Hymn to the Moon
(Written in an Arbour)

1758′ 

Thou silver deity of secret night,
   Direct my footsteps through the woodland shade;
Thou conscious witness of unknown delight,
   The Lover’s guardian, and the Muse’s aid!

By thy pale beams I solitary rove,
   To thee my tender grief confide;
Serenely sweet you gild the silent grove,
   My friend, my goddess, and my guide.

E'en thee, fair queen, from thy amazing height,
   The charms of young Endymion drew;
Veil’d with the mantle of concealing night;
   With all thy greatness and thy coldness too.

- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

(1689-1762)