492
NOTES AND QUERIES, in s. vm. DEC. 20, 1913.
Glasgow Cross and Defoe's 'Tour' (11 S. viii. 349, 416).—The earliest copy of Defoe's 'Tour' to which I can gain access is the eighth edition, 1778; but the following list of editions (not in his biographers' bibliographies) may assist Mr. W. G. Black to ascertain—if it is not in the first edition—when the passage "In the centre stands the cross" was interpolated:—
'A Tour thro' the whole Island of Great Britain' was published, Vol. I., 1st edition, 22 May, 1724.
With a Map of England and Wales, by Mr. Moll, Vol. II., 1st edition, 8 June, 1725.
Which completes this Work, and contains 'A Tour thro' Scotland,' &c. With a Map of Scotland, by Mr. Moll, Vol. III., 1st edition, 13 Aug., 1726.
Complete, 3 vols., 2nd edition, 15 June, 1727. (Lee states: "On the 15th of June, 1727, the work was advertised as being republished in three volumes complete; but whether it was then entirely reprinted or not, I am unable to say."—'Life of Defoe,' vol. i., 1869.)
Third edition, 1732, with additions by Samuel Richardson ("a paltry imitation of Defoe's work"—Wilson, 1830), 4 vols., 12mo.
4th edition, 1742, 4 vols., 12mo.
5th edition,„ 1753, 4 vols.,„ 12mo.„
6th edition,„ 1761, 4 vols.,„ 12mo.„
7th edition,„ 1769, 4 vols.,„ 12mo.„
8th edition,„ 1778, 4 vols.,„ 12mo.„
William Lee has the following remarks regarding editions of the 'Tour' other than the first and second:—
"The works of Richardson, the novelist, show that he was a careful student of Defoe; and he is said to have furnished some additions which appeared in an impression of our author's Tour, published in 1732. The many subsequent editions are all in four volumes duodecimo, and they were successively 'added to,' 'continued,' and adapted to the changes going on in the country, until the character of the original is lost under the mutilations and patches. An edition, dated 1778, is called the eighth, and the title states that it was 'originally begun by the celebrated Daniel Defoe, continued by the late Mr. Richardson [died 1761], and brought down to the present time, by a Gentleman of Eminence in the literary world.' It is stripped of the finest passages illustrating the manners of the people; it has lost the charm of his simple narrative, and is, in fact, no longer the work of Defoe. The original edition, as Defoe left it, can never be out of date, and is of increasing interest and value, as a perpetual memorial of much that has no longer a visible existence Respect for the character of the author, and the integrity of his work, demands that every edition subsequent to his death in 1731 be repudiated on his behalf."
As to Defoe's responsibility for the Scottish portion of the book—of course, I refer to the first and second editions only—I am unaware of any other hands being concerned in its compilation. The Preface to vol. i., eighth edition, 1778, quotes part of the author's Preface to his first edition as follows:—
"'The preparations for this work (says the author) have been suitable to my earnest concern for its usefulness. Seventeen very large circuits, or journies, have been taken through divers parts separately, and three general tours over almost the whole English part of the island; in all which the author has not been wanting to treasure up just remarks upon particular places and things.
"'Besides these several journies in England, he has also lived some time in Scotland, and has travelled critically over great part of it: he has viewed the north part of England, and the south part of Scotland, five several times over. All which is hinted here, to let the readers know, what reason they have to be satisfied with the authority of the relation.'
"This was part of the author's preface to his first edition."
Further confirmation is afforded by another biographer, Walter Wilson, vol. iii. p. 532, 1830:—
"In the former part of his life, business or pleasure had carried him into most of the counties of England, and he traversed them 'with observant eyes and a vigorous intellect.'"[1]
The following from Thomas Wright's excellent Life of Defoe (Cassell, 1894), pp. 33-4, also describes the manner of Defoe's journeyings, and fixes the time when he made his tours not, as Mr. Lee supposed, in 1723, but some forty years previously (during the five years that succeeded Morimouth's rebellion, 1684-8):—
"This visit [to Scotland], not being mentioned by previous biographers, was, I feared, unrecorded: but to my very great satisfaction I found it described by Defoe very precisely in 'The Great Law of Subordination' [1st edition, 4th April. 1724]. He says: 'As I made myself master of the history of the ancient state of England, I resolved in the next place to make myself master of its present state also; and to this purpose I travelled, in three or four several tours, over the whole island, critically observing, and carefully informing myself of everything worth observing in all the towns and countries through which I passed.' ……Before setting out on this tour Defoe studied Camden's 'Britannia,' 'and some other books too, which treat of the natural history, as well as the antiquities, of every country.' 'I took this journey,' he says, 'at the unhappy time when this change or revolution in manners and temper of the common people was in the height of its operation—namely, in the years 1684 to 1688, for I was near four years before I finished my travels.' Unlike Crusoe, however, he did not go alone. 'I took with me an ancient gentleman of my acquaintance, who I found was thoroughly acquainted with almost every part of England, and who was to me as a walking library, or a movable map of the countries and towns through which we passed.' Defoe often made tours through England and to Scotland subsequently. For geography he had an extraordinary passion, so much so that some of his works, as we
- ↑ "Chalmers [1786], p. 61."
