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I. Description of Variants.
Edition 'A'
A | JOURNEY | TO THE | WESTERN ISLANDS | OF | SCOTLAND. | [ornament] | LONDON: | Printed for W. Strahan; and T. Cadell in the Strand. | MDCCLXXV.
Normal collation: 8°: A1 B-C8 D8(--D8+'D8') E-T8 U8(--U4+' * U4') X-2B8 2C1.
i title, ii blank, 1-384 text, 385 eleven errata, 386 blank.
Published: January 18, 1775. 'Handsomely printed in one Volume Octavo, price 5s. sewed.'[4]
Number printed: 2000.
Paper: Heavy, with watermark initials 'IVH' (usually evident only in uncut copies). Size uncut: 22.9 x 14 cm. Average thickness of volume: unpressed copy 3.2 cm., pressed copy 2.4 cm.
Cancels: For an account of the original leaf D8, of which a unique specimen is now in the Hyde collection, and a reconstruction of the text for U4, see Professor A. T. Hazen's note in RES, XVII (1941), 201-203. To this may be added, from the evidence Mr. Wyllie has found in the University of Virginia copy, certain data on the printing of the cancels. These, it appears, were set with the title and errata leaves by half-sheet imposition, all eight of the type-pages being disposed in the forme as:
During the course of printing, the man at press (identified at D8v as number 4) interrupted his work to alter the paging of U4v from '226' to '296'. Then, after all work had been printed, and perfected on the same forme, the two copies of each sheet were cut apart and each copy placed at the end of the pile of folded text sheets, following 2B8, as a four-leaf gathering ordered D8r-v. 2C1v-r(inverted). * U4v-r(inverted). A1r-v. When these leaves were later separated for inclusion in the book, the pages of the Virginia copy carried these traces of their original location: A1r, an inverted offset of * U4r; D8r offset of 2B8v; U4v offset of 2C1r; 2C1r offset of U4v; 2C1v inverted offset of D8v.
From the juxtaposition of these leaves it is evident (1) that all four were printed off before issue, and (2) that as the title and errata leaves are disjoined in this imposition, their occasional appearance together must be regarded as an accident in the binding.
Copies: 1st state, U4v numbered 226: BM(287.f.15 [George III copy]); Bodl. (Gough Scotland 252); ULC (Syn.6.77.12); NN (Berg); ViU; Hyde Collection (1 copy); W. B. Todd. 2d state, U4v numbered 296: NN (Berg); CtY; Hyde Collection (3 copies).
Edition 'B'
Title: of same setting as 1st edition.
Normal collation: 8°: A 2 B-2B8. Asterisk before $1 of all sheets except E, S, and some copies of B.
i title, ii blank, iii six errata, iv blank, 1-384 text. In this edition the errata leaf (originally 2C1) was printed as a quarter sheet with the title and usually remains conjugate to it.
Issued: immediately after 1st edition? Number printed: 2000.
Paper: Light and unwatermarked. Average thickness of volume: 2.2 cm. Those signatures of a setting identical with that in the first edition, and therefore impressed simultaneously or immediately after the original printing, are occasionally on paper of the earlier, watermarked variety.
Type: Continuously impressed with 1st edition:
S8
2B8.
Same imposition but impression interrupted: 2A8.
Reimposed and reimpressed: A1r (title);
A2r (6 errata, last
5 removed); D8r-v, U4r-v (type retained
from cancels);
Y8v, Z8.
Reset: B-R8, T-Y8 (less the 5
reimpressed pages).
Copies: 1st state, page 1 signed 'B': BM (579.g.35); Bodl. (G. A. Scotland 8°.895); Dyce (5290); NN (Berg—2 copies); CtY; Hyde Collection (2 copies). 2d state, page 1 signed '* B': Bodl. (G. A. Scotland 8°.24).
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