William Combe's 'Tour of Dr. Syntax' begins serial publication in Ackermann's Political Magazine

Background. Rudolph Ackermann, an Anglo-German publisher settled in London, developed his business by collaborating with various artists. Thomas Rowlandson, an English caricaturist, was largely employed by Ackermann. William Combe, a British writer, wrote the serialized comic poem The Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque for Ackermann's Poetical Magazine. The poem satirized William Gilpin's picturesque theories and featured Rowlandson's color plates.

Serial Publication. From 1809 to 1811, Combe wrote for Ackermann's The Poetical Magazine. The serialized comic poem, The Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, appeared in parts. It was descriptive and moralizing verse, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson's color plates. The work depicted comic scenes involving a hapless country physician, satirizing the picturesque.

Legacy and Reissue. The serialized parts were collected in book form in 1812, reissued as a bestselling separate book. Rowlandson again engraved the plates in 1812, and the work, issued under the title of the Tour of Dr Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, attained a fifth edition by 1813. It was followed by similar Tours in later years.