ng after the
publication of Fathom in 1753. His next work was the translation of Don
Quixote, which he completed in 1755, and which may first have suggested
the idea of an English knight, somewhat after the pattern of the Spanish.
Be that as it may, before developing the idea, Smollett busied himself
with his Complete History of England, and with the comedy, The Reprisal:
or the Tars of Old England, a successful play which at last brought about
a reconciliation with his old enemy, Garrick. Two years later, in 1759,
as editor of the Critical Review, Smollett was led into a criticism of
Admiral Knowles's conduct that was judged libellous enough to give its
author three months in the King's Bench prison, during which time, it has
been conjectured, he began to mature his plans for the English Quixote.
The result was that, in 1760 and 1761, Sir Launcelot Greaves came out in
various numbers of the British Magazine. Scott has given his authority
to the statement that Smollett wrote many of the instalments in great
haste, sometimes, during a visit in Berwickshire, dashing off the
necessary amount of manuscript in an hour or so just before the departure
of the post. If the story is true, it adds its testimony to that of his
works to the author's extraordinarily facile pen. Finally, in 1762, the
novel thus hurried off in instalments appeared as a whole. This method
of its introduction to the public gives Sir Launcelot Greaves still
another claim to interest. It is one of the earliest English novels,
indeed the earliest from the pen of a great writer, published in serial
form.

G. H. MAYNADIER.

THE ADVENTURES OF SIR LAUNCELOT GREAVES

CHAPTER ONE

IN WHICH CERTAIN PERSONAGES OF THIS DELIGHTFUL HISTORY ARE INTRODUCED TO
THE READER'S ACQUAINTANCE.

It was on the great northern road from York to London, about the
beginning of the month of October, and the hour of eight in the evening,
that four travellers were, by a violent shower of rain, driven for
shelter into a little public-house on the side of the highway,
distinguished by a sign which was said to exhibit the figure of a black
lion. The kitchen, in which they assembled, was the only room for
entertainment in the house, paved with red bricks, remarkably clean,
furnished with three or four Windsor chairs, adorned with shining plates
of pewter, and copper saucepans, nicely scoured, that even dazzled the
eyes of the' beholder; while a cheerful fire