dalquhurn

Updated: May 1, 2025

Tobias George Smollett was born at Dalquhurn, Dumbartonshire, Scotland, in 1721. He was apprenticed to a Glasgow apothecary, came to London in 1739, much in the way described in "Roderick Random," with a tragedy in his pocket, and very little else.

- The World's Greatest Books — Volume 08 — Fiction

Novelist, 2nd s. of Archibald S., of Dalquhurn, Dumbartonshire, and ed. at Glasgow, proceeded to London in 1739 with the view of having a tragedy, The Regicide, put on the stage, in which, however, he failed. In this disappointment he took service as surgeon's mate on one of the vessels of the Carthagena expedition, 1741, an experience which he turned to account in his novels.

John W. (John William) Cousin - A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature