v./ .'' /^^j^i^^X .^'^^&'°- /^i^%\ .^'^-^ i- /\ i©-\X j.w\/ vW°^ ^ kx^^,, nobody imagines that he is tnc o^racter he represents. ^.,,^^, ^^^^ , g^^ ^^^, 52 JOURNAL OF A TOUR rick ! how he looks to-night ! See how he'll clutch the dagger !' That is the buz of the theatre." Tuesday 11 th August. Sir William Forbes came to breakfast, and brought with him Dr. Blacklock, whom he mtroduced to Dr. Johnson, who received him with a most humane com- placency ; "Dear Dr. Blacklock, I am glad to see you !" — Blacklock seemed to be much surprized, when Dr. Johnson said, " it was easier to him to write poetry than to compose his Dictionary. His mind was less on the stretch in doing the one than the other. Besides ; composing a Dictionary requires books and a desk : you can make a poem walking in the fields, or lying in bed."— Dr. Blacklock spoke of scepticism in morals and religion, with apparent uneasiness, as ii he wished for more certainty. Dr. Johnson, who had thought it all over, and whose vigorous understanding was fortified by much experience, dius encouraged the blind Bard to apply to higher speculations what we all willingly submit to in common life ; in short, he gave him more familiarly the able and fair reasoning of But- ler's Analogy: "Why, sir, the greatest concern we have in this world, the choice of our profession, must be determined without demonstrative reasoning. Hu- man life is not yet so well known, as that we can have it. And take the case of a man who is ill. I call two physicians : they differ in opinion. I am not to lie down, and die between them: I must do something.' — The conversation then turned on Atliej^^ ; on tl^t horrible book, Systeme de la Natv^^'i """^ on the si/p- position of an eternal nece--^^"' without design, wi^^-^- out a governing mip>^ -Johnson. " If it we- so, why ^' TO THE HEBRIDES. - 33 has it ceased? Why don't we see men thus produced around us now ? Why, at least, does it not keep pace, in some measure, with the progress of time ? If it stops because there is now no need of it, then it is plain there is, and ever has been, an all-powerful intelligence. But stay ! (said he, with one of his satyrick laughs.) Ha 1 ha ! ha ! I shall suppose Scotchmen made necessarily, and Englishmen by choice." At dinner this day, we had Sir Alexander Dick, whose amiable character, and ingenious and cultivated mind, are so generally kno\vn ; (he was then* on the \ erge of seventy, and is now eighty-one, with his facul- ties entire, his heart warm, and his temper gay ;) Sir David Dairy mple Lord Hailes ; Mr. Maclaurin, advo- cate ; Dr. Gregory, who now vi^orthily fills his father's medical chair ; and my uncle, Dr. Boswell. This was one of Dr. Johnson's best days. He was quite in his element. All was literature and taste, without any in- terruption. Lord Hailes, who is one of the best philo- logists in Great-Britain, who has written papers in the Worlds and a variety of other works in prose and in verse, both Latin and English, pleased him highly. He told him, he had discovered the Life of Cheynel, in the Student, to be his. — Johnson. " No one else knows it." — Dr. Johnson had, before this, dictated to me a law- paper, upon a question purely in the law of Scotland, concerning vicious intromission^ that is to say, intermed- dling with the effects of a deceased person, without a regular title : which formerly was understood to subject the intermeddler to payment of all th® defunct's debts. The principle has of late been relaxed. Dr. Johnson's argument was, for a renewal of its strictness. The pa- ■ * In 1773. ^■ 34 JOURNAL OF li TOUR per was printed, with additions b)^ me, and given into the Court of Session. Lord Hailes knew Dr. Johnson's part not to be mine, and pointed out exactly where it began, and where it ended. Dr. Johnson said, " It is much, now, that his lordship can distinguish so." In Dr. Johnson's Vanity of Human Wishes, there is, the following passage : *' The teeming mother, anxious for her race, " Begs for each birth, the fortune of a face : " Yet Vane could tell, what ills from beauty spring; "And Sedlcy curs'd the charms which pleas'd a king." Lord Hailes told him, he w^as mistaken in the in- stances he had given of unfortunate fair ones ; for nei- ther Vane nor Sedley had a title to that description. His Lordship has since been so obliging as to send me a note of this, for the communication of which I am sure my readers will thank me. " The lines in the tenth Satire of Juvenal, accord- " ing to my alteration, should have run thus : « Yet Shore* could tell- " And Valiere\ curs'd— " The first was a penitent by compulsion, the se- " cond by sentiment ; though the truth is, Mademoi- " selle de la Valiere threw herself (but still from senti- " ment) in the King's way. " Our friend chose Vane, who was far from being " well-looked \ and Sedley, who was so ugl}^, that " Charles II, said, his brother had her by way of pe- f* nance." * Mistress of Edward IV. f I^istress of Louis XIV. TO THE HEBRIDES. 35 Mr. Maclaurin's learning and talents enabled him to do his part very well in Dr. Johnson's company. He produced two epitaphs upon his father, the celebrated mathematician. One was in English, of which Dr. John- son did not change one word. In the other which was in Latin, he made several alterations. In place of the very words of Virgil^ " Ubi luctus et pavor et plurima mortis imago.,'''' he wrote, " Ubi luctus regnant etpavory He introduced the word prorsus into the line '■'■Mortali- bus prorsus non absit solatium.,'''' and after " Hujus enim scripta evolve., he added, " Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem corpori cadiico superstitem crede ;'''' which is quite applicable to Dr. Johnson himself. Mr. Murray, advocate, who married a niece of lord Mansfield's, and is now one of the judges of Scotland, by the title of Lord Henderland, sat with us a part of the evening ; but did not venture to say any thing, that I I remember, which he certainly might have done, had not an over-anxiety prevented him. At supper we had Dr. Alexander Webster, who though not learned, had such a knowledge of mankind, such a fund of information and entertainment, so clear a heaa and such accommodating manners, that Dr. John- son found him a very agreeable companion. When Dr. Johnson and I were left by ourselves, I read to him my notes of the Opinions of our Judges upon the Question of Literary Property. He did not like them ; and said, " they make me think of your Judges not with that respect which I should wish to do." To the argument of one of them, that there can I^e no property in blasphemy or nonsense, he answered, •' then your rotten sheep are mine ! — By that rule when a man's house falls into decav, he must lose it." — I 36 JOURNAL OF A TOUR' mentioned an argument of mine, that literary perform- ances ar€ not taxed. As Churchill says, '^ No statesman yet has thought it worth his pains " To tax our labours, or excise our brains ;" and therefore they are not property. — " Yet (said he,) we hang a man for steahng a horse, and horses are not taxed." — Mr. Pitt has since put an end to that argu- ment. Wednesday^ 18th August, On this day we set out from Edinburgh. We should gladly have had Mr. Scott to go with us ; but he waS obliged to return to England. — I have given a sketch of Dr. Johnson : my readers may wish to know a little of his feliow-traveller. Think, then, of a gentleman of ancient biood, the pride of which was his predominant passion. He was then in his thirty-third year, and had been about four years happily married, ttis inclination was to be a soldier ; but his father, a respectable Judge, had pressed him into the profession of the law. He had travelled a good deal, and seen many varieties of hu- man life. He had thought more than any body sup- posed, and had a pretty good stock of general learning and knowledge. Ho had ail Dr. Johnson's principles, with some degree of relaxation. He had rather too little than too much prudence ; and, his imagination being lively, he often said things of which the effect was very different from the intention. He resembled some- times " The best good man, with the worst natur'd muse." He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the TO THE HEBRIDES. 37 encomium of Dr. Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the companion of his Tour represents him as one, " whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation, and civility of manners, are suf- ficient to counteract the inconveniencies of travel, in countries less hospitable than we have passed." Dr. Johnson thought it unnecessary to put himself to the additional expense of bringing with him Francis Barber his faithful black servant ; so we were attended only by my man, 'Joseph Ritter, a Bohemian; a fine stately fellow above six feet high, who had been over a great part of Europe, and spoke many languages. He was the best servant I ever saw. Let not my readers disdain his introduction ! For Dr. Johnson gave him this character: " Sir, he is a civil man, and a wise man." From an erroneous apprehension of violence. Dr. Johnson had provided a pair of pistols, some gunpow- der, and a quantity of bullets : but upon being assured we should run no risk of meeting any robbers, he left his arms and ammunition in an open drawer, of which he gave my wife the charge. He also left in that drawer one volume of a pretty full and curious Diary of his Life, of which I have a few fragments ; but the book has been destroyed. I wish female curiosity had been strong enough to have had it all transcribed, which might easily have been done; and I should think the theft, being j6ro bono publico^ might have been forgiven. But I may be wrong. My wife told me she never once look- ed into it. — She did not seem quite easy when we left her ; but away we went ! Mr. Nairne, advocate, was to go with us as far as St. Andrews. It gives me pleasure that, by mention- ing his name, I connect his title to the just and hand- some compliment paid him by Dr. Johnson, in his • 38 JOURNAL OF A TOUR book : "A gentleman who could stay with us only long enough to make us know how much we lost by his leav- ing us." When we came to Leith, I talked with per- * haps too boasting an air, how pretty the Frith of Forth looked ; as indeed, after the prospect from Constanti- nople, of which I have been told, and that from Na- ples, which I have seen, I believe the view of that frith and its environs, from the Castle-hill of Edinburgh, is the finest prospect in Europe. " Ay, (said Dr. John- son,) that is the state of the world. Water is the same every where. Una est injusti cscrula foima maris."* I told him the port here was the mouth of the river or water of Leith. " Not Lethe, ''^ said Mr. Nairne. — " Why, sir, (said Dr. Johnson,) when a Scotchman sets out from this port for England, he forgets his native country." — Nmrne. " I hope, sir, you will forget Eng- land here." — Johnson. " Then 'twill be still more Lethe. '''^ — He observed of the Pier or Quay, " you have no occasion for so large a one : your trade does not re- quire it : but you are like a shopkeeper who takes a shop, not only for what he has to put into it, but that it may be believed he has a great deal to put into it." It is very true, that there is now, comparatively, little trade upon the eastern coast of Scotland. The riches of Glas- gow shew how much there is in the west; and perhaps we shall find trade travel westward on a great scale, as well as a small. * Non illic urbes, non tu mivabere silvas : Una est injusti caerula forma maris. Ovid. Amor. L. II, El. xi. Nor groves nor towns the ruthless ocean shows ; tJnvaried still its azure surface flows. TO THE HEBRIDES. 39 We talked of a man's drowning himself. — Johnson. '' I should never think it time to make away with my- self." — I put the case of Eustace Budgell, who was ac- , cused of forging a will, and sunk himself in the Thames before the trial of its authenticity came on. " Suppose, sir, (said I,) that a man is absolutely sure, that, if he lives a few days longer, he shall be detected in a fraud, the consequence of which will be utter disgrace and ex- pulsion from society." — Johnson. " Then, sir, let him go abroad to a distant country ; let him go to some place where he is not known. Don't let him go to the devil where he is known I" He then said, " I see a number of people bare-foot- ed here : I suppose you all went so before the Union. Boswell, your ancestors went so, when they had as much land as your family has now. Yet Auchinleck is the Field of Stones : there would be bad going bare- footed there. The Lairds, however, did it." — I bought some speldings, fish (generally whitings salted and dried in a particular manner, being dipped in the sea and dried in the sun, and eaten by the Scots by way of a relish. He had never seen them, though they are sold in Lon- don. I insisted on scottiji/ing* his palate ; but he was very reluctant. With difficulty I prevailed with him to let a bit of one of them lie in his mouth. He did not like it. In crossing the Frith, Dr. Johnson determined that we should land upon Inch Keith. On approaching it, we first observed a high rocky shore. We coasted about, and put into a little bay on the North-west. We clambered up a very steep ascent, on which was * My- friend, General Campbell, Govemour of Madras, tells me, that they make speldings in the East Indies, particularly at Bombay, where they call them JSombalocs. ^0 40 JOURNAL OF A TOUR very good grass, but rather a profusion of thistles. There were sixteen head of black cattle grazing upon ; the island. Lord Hailes observed to me, that Bran- tome calls it L'isle des Chevaux, and that it was proba- bly " a safer stable" than many others in his time. The fort, with an inscription on it, Maria Re 1564, is strongly built Dr. Johnson examined it with much attention. He stalked like a giant among the luxuriant thistles and nettles. There are three wells in the island, but we could not find one in the fort. There must pro- bably have been one, though now filled up, as a garri- son could not subsist without it. But I have dwelt too long on this little spot. Dr. Johnson afterwards bade me try to write a description of our discovering Inch Keith, in the usual style of travellers, describing fully every particular ; stating the grounds on which we con- cluded that it must have once been inhabited, and in- troducing many sage reflections ; and we should see how a thing might be covered in words, so as to induce people to come and survey it. All that was told might be true, and yet in reality there might be nothing to see. He said, " I'd have this island. I'd build a house, make a good landing-place, have a garden, and vines, and all sorts of trees. A rich man, of a hospitable turn, here, would have many visitors from Edinburgh." When we had got into our boat again, he called to me, *' Come, now, pay a classical compliment to the island on quitting it." I happened luckily, in allusion to the beautiful Queen Mary, whose name is upon the fort, to think of what Virgil makes ^Eneas say, on hav- ing left the country of his charming Dido : Invitus, I'egina, tuo de littore cessi.* * " Unhappy queen ! Unwilling I forsook your frfend'y state." Dryden. TO THE HEBRIDES. 41 '' Very well hit off!" said he. We dined at Kinghorn, and then got into a post- chaise. Mr. Nairne and his servant, and Joseph, rode , by us. We stopped at Cupar, and drank tea. We talked of parliament ; and I said, I supposed very few of the members knew much of what was going on, as indeed very few gentlemen know much of their own private affairs. — Johnson. " Why, sir, if a man is not of a sluggish mind, he may be his own steward. If he will look into his affairs, he will soon learn. So it is as to publick affairs. Therd*must always be a certain number of men of business in parliament." — BosxvelL " But, consider, sir ; what is the House of Commons. Is not a great part of it chosen by peers ? Do you think sir. they ought to have such an influence ?" — Johnson. " Yes, sir. Influence must ever be in proportion to property; audit is right it should." — Bosxvell. "But is there not reason to fear that the common people may be oppressed ?" — Johnson. " No, sir. Our great fear is from want of power in government. Such a storm of vulgar force has broke in." — Bosxvell. " It has only roared." — Johmon. " Sir, it has roared, till the Judges in Westminster-Hall have been afraid to pronounce sentence in opposition to the popular cry. You are frightened by what is no longer dangerous, like Pres- byterians by Popery." — He then repeated a passage, I think, in Butler's Remains^ which ends, " and would cry, Fire ! Fire ! in Noah's flood."* * The passage quoted by Dr. Johnson is in the Character of the Assembly -tnan, Butler's Remains, p. 232, edit. 1754. — ■' He preaches, indeed, both in season and out of season ; for he rails at Popery, when the land is almost lost in Presbytery, and would cry Fire ! Fire! in Noah's flood." There is reason to believe that this piece was not written by Butler, but by Sir John Birkenhead ; for Wood in his Atheiice Oxoniensis, Vol. II, p. 640, enume- liites it among that gentleman's works, and gives the following account of it : *' The Assembly -man (or the character of an Assembly-man) written 1647, jjrt* 42 JOUKNAL OF A TOUR We had a dreary drive, in a dusky night, to St. Andrews, where we arrived late. We found a good supper at Glass's inn, and Dr. Johnson revived agreea- bly-. He 'said, " the collection called ' The Muses' Welcome' to King James, (first of England, and sixth of Scotland,) on his return to his native kingdom, shewed that there was then abundance of learning in Scotland : and that the conceits in that collection, with which people find fault, were mere mode." He added, " we could not now entertain a sovereign so ; that Bu- chanan had spread the spirft of learning amongst us, but we had lost it during the civil wars." He did not allow the Latin Poetry of Pitcairne so much merit as has been usually attributed to it ; though he owned that one of his pieces, which he mentioned, but which I am sorry is not specified in my notes, was " very well." It is not improbable that it was the poem which Prior has so elegantly translated. After supper, we made 2i procession to Saint Leonard'' s College ^the. landlord v/alking before us with a candle, and the waiter with a lantern. That college had some^time before been dissolved; andDr. Watson, a professor here, (the historian of Philip H,) had purchased the ground, and what buildings remained. When we entered his court, it seemed quite academical ; and we found in his house very comfortable and genteel accommodation.* Land. 1662-3, in three sheets in qu. Tr.e copv of it was taken from the author by those who said they could not rob, because all was theirs; so excised what they liked not ; and so mangled and reformed it, that it was no character of an Assembly, but of themselves. At length, after it had slept several years, the au- thor published it, to avoid false copies. It is also reprinted in a book entit. Wit and Loyalty revived, in a collection of some smart satyrs in verse and prose on the late times, Lo7id 1682, qu. said to be written by Abr. Cowley, Sir John Birken- ,head, and Hudibras, alias Sarn. Butler." — For this information I am iiidebted to Mr. Reed, of Staple Inn. * My Journal, from this day inclusive, was read by Dr. Johnson. TO THE HEBRIDES. 43 '"'''**''* Thursday, 19 th August. We rose much refreshed. I had with me a map of Scotland, a Bible, which was given me by Lord Mount- stuart when we were together in Italy, and Ogden's Sermons on Prayer. Mr. Nairne introduced us to Dn Watson, whom we found a well-informed man, of very amiable manners. Dr. Johnson, after they were ac- quainted, said, " I take great delight in him." — His daughter, a very pleasing young lady, made breakfast. Dr. Watson observed, that Glasgow University had fewer home students, since trade increased, as learning was rather incompatible with it. — Johnson. " Why, sir, as trade is now carried on by subordinate hands, men in trade have as much leisure as others ; and now learn- ing itself is a trade. A man goes to a bookseller, and gets what he can. We have done with patronage. In the infancy of learning, v^^e find some great man praised for it. This diffused it among others. When it be- comes general, an authour leaves the great, and applies to the multitude." — Boswell. " It is a shame that au- thours are not now better patronized." — Johnson. " No, sir. If learning cannot support a man, if he must sit with his hands across till somebody feeds him, it is as. to him a bad thing, and it is better as it is. With pa- tronage, what flattery ! what falsehood ! While a man is in equilibrio, he throws truth among the multitude, and lets them take it as they please : in patronage, he must. say what pleases his patron, and it is an equal chance whether that be truth or falsehood." — Watson. " But is not the case now, that, instead of flattering one person, we flatter the age?" — Johnson. " No, sir. The world always lets a man tell what he thinks, his own way. I wonder, however, that so many people have 44 JOURNAL OF A TOUR written, who might have let it alone. That people should endeavour to excel in conversation, I do not , wonder ; because in conversation praise is instantly re- verberated." We talked of change of manners. Dr. Johnson ob- served that our drinking less than our ancestors, was owing to the change from ale to wine. *' I remember, (said he,) when all the decent people in Lichfield got drunk every night, and were not the worse thought of. Ale was cheap, so you pressed strongly. When a man must bring a bottle of wine, he is not in such haste. Smoking has gone out. To be sure, it is a shocking thing, blowing smoke out of our mouths into other peo- ple's mouths, eyes, and noses, and having the same thing done to us. Yet I cannot account, why a thing which requires so little exertion, and yet preserves the mind from total vacuity, should have gone out. Every man has something by which he calms himself; beating with his feet, or so.* I remember when people in England changed a shirt only once a week : a Pandour, when he gets a shirt, greases it to make it last. Formerly, good tradesmen had no fire but in the kitchen ; never in the parlour, except on Sunday. My father, who was a ma- gistrate of Lichfield, lived thus. They never began to have a fire in the parlour, but on leaving oft' business, or some great revolution of their life." — Dr. Watson said, the hall was as a kitchen, in old squires' houses. ■ — Johnson, " No, sir. The hall was for great occa* sions, and never was used for domestick refection." — We talked of the Union, and what money it had brought into Scotland. Dr. Watson observed, that a little mo- ney formerly went as far as a great deal now. — Johnson, ^ Dr. Johnson used to practice, this himself very much. f % TO THE HEBRIDES. 45 " In speculation, it seems that a smaller quantity of mo- ney, equal in value to a larger quantity, if equally di- vided, should produce the same effect. But it is not so in reality. Many more conveniences and elegancies are enjoyed where money is plentiful, than where it is scarce. Perhaps a great familiarity with it, which arises from plenty, makes us more easily part with it." After what Dr. Johnson had said of St. Andrews, which he had long wished to see, as our ancient univer- sity, and the seat of our Primate in the days of episco- pacy, I can say little. Since the publication of Dr. Johnson's book, I find that he has been censured for not seeing here the ancient chapel of St. Rule, a curious piece of sacred architecture. But this was neither his fault nor mine. We were both of us abundantly de- sirous of surveying such sort of antiquities : but neither of us knew of this. I am afraid the censure must fall on those who did not tell us of it. In every place where there is any thing worthy of observation, there should be a short printed directory for strangers, such as we find in all the towns of Italy, and in some of the towns in England. I was toid that there is a manu- script account of St. Andrews, by Martin, secretary to Archbishop Sharp ; and that one Douglas has publish- ed a small account of it. I inquired at a bookseller's, but could not get it. Dr. Johnson's veneration for the Hierarchy is well known. There is no wonder then that he was affected with a sti'ong indignation, while he beheld the ruins of religious magnificence. I happened to ask where John Knox was buried. Dr. Johnson burst out, " I hope in the high- way. I have been look- ing at his reformations." It was a very fine day. Dr. Johnson seemed quite wrapt up ill the contemplation of the scenes which were M. -4.^ 46 JOURNAL OF A TOUR now presented to him. He kept his hat off while he was upon any part of the ground where the cathedral had stood. He said well, that " Knox had set on a mob, without knowing where it would end ; and that differing from a man in doctrine was no reason why you should pull his house about his ears." As we walked in the cloisters, there was a solemn echo, while he talk- ed loudly of a proper retirement from the world. Mr. Nairne said, he had an inclination to retire. I called Dr. Johnson's attention to this, that I rhight hear his opinion if it was right. — Johnson. " Yes, when he has done his duty to society. In general, as every man is obliged not only to " love God, but his neighbour as himself," he must bear his part in active life ; yet there are exceptions. Those who are exceedingly scrupu- lous, (which I do not approve, for I am no friend to scruples) and find their scrupulosity invincible, so that they are quite in the dark, and know not what they shall do, — or those who cannot resist temptations, and find they make themselves worse by being in the world, without making it better, may retire. I never read of a hermit, but in imagination I kiss his feet ; never of a monastery, but I could fall on my knees and kiss the pavement. But I think putting young people there, who know nothing of life, nothing of retirement, is danger- ous and wicked. It is a saying as old as Hesiod, E^y« vfalv, /3«A«<7£ y-sa-av^ ev^xQe yepivTuv* That is a very noble line: not that young men should not pray, or old men not give counsel, but that every • Let active enterprize the young engage. The riper man be famed for counsel sage ; Prayer is the proper duty of old age. ' - # TO THE HEBRIDES. 47 season of life has its proper duties. I have thought of retiring, and have talked of it to a friend ; but I find my vocation is rather to active life." I said, some young monks might be allowed, to shew that it is not age alone that can retire to pious solitude ; but he thought this would only shew that they could not resist temptation. He wanted to mount the steeples but this could not be done. There are no good inscriptions here. Bad Roman characters he naturally mistook for half Gothic, half Roman. One of the steeples, which he was told was in danger, he wished not to be taken down ; " for, said he, it may fall on some of the posterity of John Knox ; and no great matter!" — Dinner was mention- ed. — Johnson. *' Ay, ay ; amidst all these sorrowful scenes, I have no objection to dinner." We went and looked at the castle, where Cardinal Beaton was murdered, and then visited Principal Mu- rison at his college, where is a good library-room ; but the principal was abundantly vain of it, for he seriously said to Dr. Johnson, " you have not such a one in Eng- land." The professors entertained us with a very good din- ner. Present: Murison, Shaw, Cooke, Hill, Haddo, Watson, Flint, Brown. I observed, that I wondered to see him eat so well, after viewing so many sorrowful scenes of ruined religious magnificence. '' Why, said he, I am not sorry, after seeing these gentlemen ; for they are not sorry." — Murison said, all sorrow was bad, as it was murmuring against the dispensations of Pro- vidence — Johnson. " Sir, sorrow is inherent in huma- nity. As you cannot judge two and two to be either five, or three, but certainly four, so, when comparing a worse present state with a better which is past, you can- not but feel sorrow. It is not cured by reason, but Ipy 48 JOURNAL OF A TOUR the incursion of present objects, which wear out the past. You need not murmur, though you are sorry." — Muri- son. " But St. Paul says, " I have learnt, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content." — Johnson. " Sir, that relates to riches and poverty ; for we see St. Eaul, when he had a th'Qrn in the flesh, prayed earnestly to have it removed ; and then he could not be content." — Murison, thus refuted, tried to be smart, and drank to Dr. Johnson, " Long may you lecture !" — Dr. John- son afterwards, speaking of his not drinking wine, said, " The Doctor spoke of lecturing (looking to him). I give all these lectures on water." He defended requiring subscription in those admit- t^ t#mniversities, thus : " As all who come into the country must obey the king, so all who come into an university must be of the church." And here I must do Dr. Johnson the justice to con- tradict a very absurd land ill-natured story, as to what passed at St. Andrews. It has been circulated, that after grace was said in English, in the usual manner, he with the greatest marks of contempt, as if he had held it to be no grace in an university, would not sit down till he had said grace aloud in Latin, This would have been an insult indeed to the gentlemen who were entertaining us. But the truth was precisely thus. In the course of conversation at dinner. Dr. Johnson in very good humour, said, " I should have expected to have heard a Latin grace, among so many learned men : we had always a Latin grace at Oxford. I believe I can repeat it." Which he did, as giving the learned men in one place a specimen of what was done by the learned men in another place. f^- We went and saw the church, in which is Arch- bishop Sharp's monument. I was struck with the same ,jA ^ TO THE HEBRIDES. 49 kind of feelings with which the churches of Italy im- pressed me. I was much pleased, to see Dr. Johnson actually in St. Andrews, of which we had, talked so long. Professor Haddo was with us this afternoon, along with Dr. Watson. We looked at St. Salvador's College. The rooms for students seemed very com- modious, and Dr. Johnson said, the chapel was the neatest place of worship he had seen. The key of the library could not be found ; for it seems Professor Hill, who was out of town, had taken it with him. Dr. John- son told a joke he had heard of a monastery abroad, where the key of the librtury could never be found. It was something dispiriting, to see this ancient archiepiscopal city now sadly deserted We saw in one of its streets a remarkable proof of liberal toleration ; a nonjuring clergyman, strutting about in his canonicals, with a jolly countenance and a round belly, like a well- fed monk. We observed two occupations united in the same person, who had hung out two sign-posts. Upon one was, " James Hood, White Iron Smith" fi. e. Tin- plate Worker.) Upon another, " The Art of Fencing taught, by James Hood." — Upon this last were painted some trees, and two men fencing, one of whom had hit the other in the eye, to shew his great dexterity ; so that the art was well taught. — Johnson. "Were I studying here, I should go and take a lesson, I re- member Hope, in his book on this art, says, 'The Scotch are very good fencers." V/e returned to the inn, where we had been enter- tained at dinner, and drank tea in company with some of the Professors, of whose civilities I beg leave to add my humble and very grateful acknowledgement to the honourable testimony of Dr. Jolinson, in his "Journey."' 50 JOURNAL OF A TOUR We talked of composition, which was a favourite topick of Dr. Watson's, who first distinguished him- self by lectures on rhetorick. — Johnson. " I advised Chambers, and would advise every young man begin- ning to compose, to do it as fast as he can, to get a ha- bit of having his mind to start promptly ; it is so much more difiicult to improve in speed than in accuracy." - — Watson. " I own I am for much attention to accu- racy in composing, lest one should get bad habits of do- ing it in a slovenly manner." — Johnson. "Why, sir, you are confounding doing inaccurately with the necessity of doing inaccurately. A man knows when his compo- sition is inaccurate, and when he thinks fit he'll correct it. But if a man is accustomed to compose slowly, and with diificulty, upon all occasions, there is danger that he may not compose at all, as we do not like to do that which is not done easily ; and, at any rate, more time is consumed in a small matter than ought to be." — Watson. " Dr. Hugh Blair has taken a week to com- pose a sermon.'' — Johnson. "Then, sir, that is for want of the habit of composing quickly, which I am in- sisting one should acquire." — Watson. " Blair was not composing all the week, but only such hours as he found himself disposed for composition." — Johnson. " Nay, sir, unless you tell me the time he took, you tell me nothing.. If I say I took a week to walk a mile, and have had the gout five days, and been ill otherwise another day, I have taken but one day. I myself have composed about forty sermons. I have begun a ser- mon after dinner, and sent it off by the post that night. I wrote forty -eight of the printed octavo pages of the Life of Savage at a sitting ; but then I sat up all night. I have also writteii six sheets in a day of translation from the FrenGh."—^o^^e/A " We have all observed m TO THE HEBRIDES. 51 how one man dresses himself slowly, and another fast." Johnson. "Yes, sir; it is wonderful how much time some people will consume in dressing ; taking up a thing and looking at it, and laying it down, and taking it up again. Every one should get the habit of doing it quickly. I would say to a young divine, ' Here is your text ; let me sec how soon you can make a ser- mon.' Then I'd say, ' Let me see how much better you can make it.' Thus I should see both his powers and his judgement." We all went to Dr. Watson's to supper. Miss Sharp, great grandchild of Archbishop Sharp, was there ; as was Mr. Craig, the ingenious architect of the new town of Edinburgh, and nephew of Thomson, to whom Dr. Johnson has since done so much justice, in his " Lives of the Poets." We talked of memory, and its various modes. — Johnson. " Memory will play strange tricks. One sometimes loses a single word. I once lost fugaces in the Ode Posthume, Posthume:' I mentioned to him that a worthy genUeman of my acquaintance actually forgot his own name. — Johnson. " Sir, that was a mor- bid oblivion." Friday, 20th August. Dr. Shaw, the professor of divinity, breakfasted with us. I took out my " Ogden on I^rayer," and read some of it to the company. Dr. Johnson praised him. " Abernethy, (said he,) allows only of a physi- cal eifect of prayer upon the mind, which may be pro^ duced many ways, as well as by pra}'er ; for instance, by meditation. Ogden goes farther. In truth, we have the consent of all nations for the efficacy of pray- m JOURNAL OF A TOUH er, whether offered up by individuals, or by assemblies 5 and Revelation has told us, it will be effectual." — I said, " Leechman seemed to incline to Abernet.hy's doctrine." Dr. Watson observed, that Leechman meant to shew, that, even admitting no effect to be pro- duced by prayer, respecting the Deity, it was useful to our own minds. He had given only a part of his sys- tem : Dr. Johnson thought he should have given the whole. Dr. Johnson enforced the strict observance of Sun- day. "It should be different (he observed) from ano- ther day. People may walk, but not throw stones at birds. There may be relaxation, but there should be no levity." We went and savv^ Colonel Naime's garden and grotto. Here was a fine old plane tree. Unluckily the colonel said, there was but this and another large tree in the county. This assertion was an excellent cue for Dr. Johnson, who laughed enormously, calling me to hear it. He had expatiated to me on the naked- nes of that part of Scotland which he had seen. His " Journey" has been violently abused, for what he has said upon this subject. But let it be considered, that when Dr. Johnson talks of trees, he means trees of good size, such as he was accustomed to see in Eng- land ; and of these there are certainly very few upon the eastern coast of Scotland. Besides, he said, that he meant to give only a map of the road ; and let any traveller 'observe how many trees, which deserve the name, he can see from the road from Berwick to Aberdeen. Had Dr. Johnson said, " there are ?i& trees" upon this line, he would have said what is col- loquially true ; because, by no trees, in common speech, we mean few. When he is particular in ■*;• ^ TO THE HEBRIDES. 53 counting, he may be attacked. I know not how Colonel Nairne came to say there were but two large trees m the county of Fife. I did not perceive that he smiled. There are certainly not a great many ; but I could have shewn him more than two at Balmiito, from whence my ancestors came, and which now be- longs to a branch of my family. In the grotto, we saw a lobster's claw uncommonly large. In the front of it were petrified stocks of fir, plane, and some other tree. Dr. Johnson said, " Scot- land has no right to boast of this grotto ; it is owing to personal merit. I never denied personal merit to many of you." — Professor Shaw said to me, as we walked, " This is a wonderful man : he is master of every sub- ject he handles." — Dr. Watson allowed him a very strong understanding, but wondered at his total inatten- tion to established manners, as he came from London. I have not preserved, in my Journal, any of the con- versation which passed between Dr. Johnson and Pro- fessor Shaw ; but I recollect Dr. Johnson said to mc afterwards, " I took much to Shaw." We left St. Andrews about noon, and some miles from it observing, at Leuchars^ a church, with an old tower, we stopped to look at it. The manse^ as the parsonage-house is called in Scotland, was close by, I waited on the minister, mentioned our names, and beg- ged he ^vould tell us what he knew about it. He was a very civil old man ; but could only inform us, that it was supposed to have stood eight hundred years. He told us, there was a colony of Danes in his parish ; that they had landed at a remote period of time, and still re- mained a distinct people. Dr. Johnson shrewdly in- quired whether they had brought women with them. We were not satisfied as to this colony. 54 JOURNAL OF A TOUR We saw, this day, Dundee and Aberbrothick, the last of which Dr. Johnson has celebrated in his " Jour- ney." Upon the road we talked of the Roman Catho- lick faith. He mentioned (I think) Tillotson's argu- ment against transubstantiation : " That we are as sure we see bread and wine only, as that we read in the Bi- ble the text on which that false doctrine is founded. We have only the evidence of our senses for both." *' If, (he added,) God had. never spoken figuratively, we might hold that he speaks literally, when he says, 'This is my body." ' — Boswell. "But what do you say, sir, to the ancient and continued tradition of the church upon this point ?" — Johnson. " Tradition, sir, has no place, where the Scriptures are plain ; and tra- dition cannot persuade a man into a belief of transub- stantiation. Able men, indeed, have said they believed it." This is an awful subject. I did not then press Dr. Johnson upon it ; nor shall 1 now enter upon a disqui- sition concerning the import of those words uttered by our Saviour, which had such an effect upon many of his disciples, that they " went back, and walked no more with him." The Catechism and solemn office for Communion, in the Church of England, maintain a mysterious belief in more than a mere commemora- tion of the death of Christ, by partaking of the elements of bread and wine. Dr. Johnson put me in mind, that, at St. Andrews, I had defended my profession very well, when the ques- tion had again been started, Whether a lawyer might honestly engage with the first side that offers him a fee. " Sir, (said I,) it was with your arguments against Sir William Forbes : but it was much that I could wield the arms of Goliah." "*fe- TO THE HEBRIDES. 55 He said, our judges had not gone deep in the ques- tion concerning literary property. I mentioned Lord Monboddo's opinion, that if a man could get a work by heart, he might print it, as by such an act the mind is exercised. — Johnson, " No, sir ; a man's repeating it no more makes it his property, than a man may sell a cow which he drives home." — I said, printing an abridge- ment of a work was allowed, which was only cutting the horns and tail off the cow. — Johnson. " No sir ; 'tis making the cow have a calf." About eleven at night we arrived at Montrose. Wc found but a sorry inn, where I myself saw another wai- ter put a lump of sugar with his fingers into Dr. John- son's lemonade, for which he called him "Rascal!" It put me in great glee that our landlord was an Eng- lishman. I rallied the Doctor upon this, and he grew quiet. Both Sir John Hawkins's and Dr. Burney's His- tory of Musick had then been advertised. I asked if this was not unlucky : would not they hurt one another? — Johnson. "No, sir. They wull do good to one ano- ther. Some will buy the one, some the other, and com- pare them ; and so a talk is made about a thing, and the books are sold." He was angry at me for proposing to carry lemons with us to Sky, that he might be sure to have his le- monade. " Sir, (said he,) I do not wish to be thought that feeble man who cannot do without any thing. Sir, it is very bad manners to carry provisions to any man's house, as if he could not entertain you. To an infe- riour it is oppressive ; to a superiour, it is insolent." Having taken the liberty, this evening, to remark to Dr. Johnson, that he very often sat quite silent for a Ions.!: time, even when in company v\dth only a single friend, which I mvself had sometimes sadlv experienced, he 56 JOURNAL OF A TOUR smiled and said, *' It is true^ sir. Tom Tyers, (for so he familiarly called our ingenious friend, who, since his death, has paid a biographical tribute to his memory,) Tom Tyers described me the best. He once said to me, ' Sir you are like a ghost ; you never speak till you are spoken to.-' Saturday^ 2\st August. Neither the Rev. Mr. Nisbet, the established minis- ter, nor the Rev. Mr. Spooner, the episcopal minister, were in town. Before breakfast, we went and saw the town-hail, where is a good dancing room, and other rooms, for tea-drinking. The appearance of the town from it is very well ; but many of the houses are built with their ends to the street, which looks awkward. When we came down from it, I met Mr. Gleg, a mer- chant here. He went with us to see the English cha- pel. It is situated on a pretty dry spot, and there is a fine walk to it. It is really an elegant building, both within and without. The organ is adorned with green and gold. Dr. Johnson gave a shilling extraordinary to the clerk, saying, " He belongs to an honest church." I put him in mind, that episcopals were but dissenters here ; they were only tolerated. " Sir, (said he,) we are here, as Christians in Turkey." — He afterwards went into an apothecary's shop, and ordered some medi- cine for himself, and wrote the prescription in technical characters. The boy took him for a physician, I doubted much which road to take, whether to g© by the coast, or by Laurence Kirk and Monboddo. I knew Lord Monboddo and Dr. Johnson did not love each other : yet I was unwilling not to visit his lord- TO THE HEBRIDES. 57 ship ; and was also curious to see them together*, I mentioned my doubts to Dr. Johnson, who said, he would go two miles out of his way to see Lord Mon- boddo. I therefore sent Joseph forward, with the fol- lowing note : ^^ Ml/ dear Lord, Montrose, 21 August. " THUS far I am come with Mr. Samuel Johnson. We must be at Aberdeen to-night. I know you do not admire him so much as I do ; but I cannot be in this country without making you a bow at your old place, as I do not know if I may again have an oppor- tunity of seeing Monboddo. Besides, Mr. Johnson says, he would go two miles out of his way to see Lord Monboddo. I have sent forward my servant, that we may know if your lordship be at home. I am ever, my dear lord, " Most sincerely yours, "James Boswell." As we travelled onwards from Montrose, we had, the Grampion hills in our view, and some good land around us, but void of trees and hedges. Dr. Johnson has said ludicrously, in his "Journey," that the hedges were of stbne; for, instead of the verdant thorn to re- fresh the eye, we found the bare wall or dike intersect- ing the prospect. He observed, that it was wonderful to see a country so divested, so denuded of trees. We stopped at Laurence Kirk, where our great grammarian, Ruddiman, was once schoolmaster. Wq * There were several points of similarity between them ; learning, cleames.s of head, precision of speech, and a, love of research on many subjects which people in general do not investigate. Foote paid Lord Monboddo the compUmejit of saying, that he was " an Elzevir edition of Johnson." 1 58 JOURNAL OF A TOUR respectfully remembered that excellent man and emi" nent scholar, by whose labours a kno\vledge of the Latm language will be preserved in Scotland, if it shall be preserved at all. Lord Gardenston, one of our judges, collected money to raise a monument to him at this place, 'uhich I hope will be well executed. I know my father gave five guineas towai'ds it. Lord Gardenston is the proprietor of Laurence Kirk, and has encouraged the building of a manufacturing village, of which he is exceedingly fond, and has written a pam- phlet upon it, as if he had founded Thebes ; in which, however, there are many useful precepts strongly ex- pressed. The village seemed to be irregularly built, some of the houses being of clay, some of brick, and some of brick and stone. Dr. Johnson observed, they thatclied ^vell here. I was a little acquainted with Mr. Forbes, the min- ister of the parish. I sent to inform him that a gentle- man desired to see him. He returned for answer, "that he would not come to a stranger." I then gave my name, and he came. I remonstrated to him for not coming to a stranger ; and, by presenting him to Dr. Johnson, proved to him what a stranger might sometimes be. His Bible inculcates " be not forgetful to entertain strangers," and mentions the same motive. He defended himself by saying, " He had once come to a stranger who sent for him ; and he found him ' a lit- tie-worth person .'" Dr. Johnson insisted on stopping at the inn, as I told him that Lord Gardenston had furnished it with a col- lection of books, that travellers might have entertain- ment for the mind, as well as the body. He praised the design, but wished there had been more books, and those better chosen. TO THE HEBRIDES. 59 About a mile from Monboddo, where you turn oft' the road, Joseph was waiting to tell us my lord expect- ed us to dinner. We drove over a wild moor. It rained, and the scene was somewhat dreary. Dr. John- son repeated, with solenm emphasis, Macbeth's speech on meeting the witches. As we travelled on, he told me, *' Sir, you got into our club by doing what a man can do.* Several of the members wished to keep you out. Burke told me, he doubted if you Avere fit for it : but, now you are in, none of them are sony. Burke says, that you have so much good humour naturally, it is scarce a virtue." — Boswell. "They were afraid of you, sir, as it was you who proposed me." — Johnson. '' Sir, they knew, that if they refused you, they'd proba- bly never have got in another. I'd have kept them all out. Beauclerk was very earnest for you." BoswelL " Beauclerk has a keenness of mind which is very un- common." — Johnson. ■ " Yes, sir ; and every thing- comes from him so easily. It appears to me that I la- bour, when I say a good thing." — Bosiuell. "You are loud, sir ; but it is not an effort of mind." Monboddo is a wretched place, wild and naked, with a poor old house ; though, if I recollect right, there are two turrets which mark an old baron's resi- dence. Lord Monboddo received us at his gate most courteously ; pointed to the Douglas arms upon his house, and told us that his rrreat q-rand-mother was of that family. "In such houses (said he,) our ancestors lived, who were better men than we." — " No, no, my lord (said Dr. Johnson). We are as strong as they, an'd a great deal wiser." — This was an assault upon one of * This, I find, is considered as obscure. I suppose Br. Johnson meant, that 1 assiduously and earnestly recommended myself to 50'T»e 9»" the m.embc-s, as in v. canvass for an election into parliairrent . 60 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Lord Monboddo's capital dogmas, and I was afraid there would have been a violent altercation in the very close, before we got into the house. But his lordship is distinguished not only for " ancient metaphysicks," but for ancient politesse, " la vie'ille coiii\^'' and he made no reply. His lordship was drest in a rustick suit, and wore a little round hat ; he told us, we now saw him as Farmer Burnett^ and we should have his family dinner, a far- mer's dinner. He said, " I should not have forgiven Mr. Bosweil, had he not brought you here. Dr. John- son." He produced a very long stalk of corn, as a spe- cimen of his crop, and said, " you see here the Icetas se- getes ••" he added, that Virgil seemed to be as enthusias- tick a farmer as he, and was certainly a practical one. — Johnson. " It does not always follow, my lord, that a man who has written a good poem on an art, has prac- tised it. Philip Miller told me, that in Philips's Cyder, a poem, all tltfe precepts were just, and indeed better than in books written for the purpose of instructing ; yet Philips had never made cyder." I started the subject of emigration. — Johnson. " To a man of mere animal life, you can urge no argument against going to America, but that it will be some time before he will get the earth to produce. But a man of any intellectual enjoyment will not easily go and im- merse himself and his posterity for ages in barbarism." He and my lord spoke highh^ of Homer. — Johnson. ** He had all the learning of his age. The shield of Achilles shews a nation in war, a nation in peace ; har- vest sport, nay stealing."* — Monboddo. " Ay, and what * My note of this is much too short. Brevis esse laboro, obscuntsfio. Yet, as I have resolved that the very yournal vshkh Dr jfohnson read, shall be presented to the publickj I will not expand the text in any considerable degree, though I may TO THE HEBRIDES. 61 we (looking to me) would call a parliament-house scene; a cause pleaded."- — Johnson, " That is part of the life of a natiop in peace. And there are in Homer such cha- racters of heroes, and combinations of qualities of he- roes, that the united powers of mankind ever since have not produced any but what are to be found there." — Monboddo. " Yet no character is described." — Johnson. *' No ; they all develope themselves. Agamemnon is always a gentleman-like character ; he has always v,a.TO THE HEBRIDES. ^^^ 75 We spoke of Fingal. Dr. Johnson said calmly, " If the poems were really translated, they were certainJv JTani post milie ai'tes, medica tentamina curx, Ardet adhuc Febris ; nee nielit arte regi. JPrxda sumits flaonmis ; solum hoc speravius ab ign^, Ut restet paucus, qucTn capit urna, cinis. Dtini quxrit medicus febris caussamqtie, modumque, Flammarutn iJf tenebras, iS" sine luce faces; ^as tractat patitur fiamnias, \Sffebre calescens, Corruit ipse suis mctima raptafocis. ^ui tardos potuit vnarbos, artusque trementes, Sistere,febrHi se videt igne rapi. Sicfaber exesosfilcit tibicine mures; 'fj- Dum, trahit antiquas lenta ruina domos, Sed si flaTnona iiorax miseras incenderit ades, Unica jiagr antes tunc sepeliresalus. Fitfuga, tectonicas nemo tunc invocat artes.; Cum perit artificis non mmus usta domus. - Se tandem SyAex\h2^vafebrisque Scholxqueftirori Opponens, onorbi qmerit, ISf artis ope7ti. Non temere incitsat tectce putedinis ignes; Nee fetus, febres quifovet, hmnor erit. Non bilemille niovet, nulla hie pituita; Salutis ^tce spes, sifallax ardeat intus aqua ? Nee doetas magna rixas ostentat hiatu, " ^uis ipsis major febribus ardor inest. Innociias placide corpus jubet urerefainmas. Ft justo rapidos temper at ignefocos. ^idfebrim exstinguat, varius quid postulat usiis, Solari cegrotos, qua pates arte, docet. Hactenus ipsa suum timuit Natura ealarem, Dum sape incertOyquo calet, igne perit ■• Dum reparat tacitos m,ale provida sanguinis ignes, P)-(elusitbtisto, fit calor iste rogus. yaon secura suasfuveant praeordiaflamonas, ^lem Natura tiegat, dat Medicina onodutn. Nee solumfaciles compescit sanguinis testus, Dum dubia est inter spemque metumque saius ; Stdfatale m,alum domuit, quodque astra malignimi Credimus, iratam vel genuisse Stygem. Mxtorft Lachesi cidtros, Pestique venenuTn Abstulit, ijf ta'ntos non sinit esse metus. ^iis tandem, arte nova domitain oniteseere Pestem Crxdat, bf antiquasjionere posse minas? 76 JOURNAL OF A TOUR first written down. Let Mr. Macpherson deposite the manuscript in one of the colleges at Aberdeen, where there are people who can judge ; and, if the professors certify the authenticity, then there will be an end of the controversy. If he does not take this obvious and easy method, he gives the best reason to doubt ; consider- ing too, how much is against it a priori. We sauntered after dinner in Sir Alexander's gar- den, and saw his little grotto, which is hung with pieces of poetry written in a fair hand. It was agreeable to observe the contentment and kindness of this quiet, be. nevolent man. Professor Macleod was brother to Mac- leod of Talisker, and brother-in-law to the Laird of Col. He gave me a letter to young Col. I was weary of this day, and began to think wishfully of being again in motion. I was uneasy to think myself too fastidious, whilst I fancied Dr. Johnson quite satisfied. But he owned to me that he was fatigued and teased by Sir Alexander's doing too much to entertain him. I said, it was all kindness. — Johnson. " True, sir : but sen- sation is sensation." — Boswell. "It is so : we feel pain equally from the surgeon's probe, as from the sword of the foe." We visitedtwo booksellers' shops, and could notfind Arthur Johnston's Poems. We went and sat near an hour Post tot mille neces, cuniulataqtiefunera busto, Victajacet, parvo vulnere, dira Lues. Mtherice quanquam spargunt contagia fiamtnis-, ^dcqiiid inest istis ignibus, ignis erit. Delapsce cceloflaimme licet acrius iirant. Has gelida cxstingui non nisi inorte putas ? Til meliora paras victrix' Medicina ,- tuusque, Pestis quce super at cuncta, triiimphus eris. Vi've liber, victisjebrilibus igtiibtts ; iinus Te sioniil {jJ* mimdiim qui onmiet, igjiis erit. J. LOCK, A. M. Ex. Aede Chrjsti, Oxon. TO THE HEBRIDES. 77 at Mr. Riddoch's. He could not tell distinctly how much education at the college here costs, which disgusted Dr. Johnson. I had pledged myself that we should go to the inn, and not stay supper. They pressed us, but he was resolute. I saw Mr. Riddoch did not please him. He said to me, afterwards, " Sir, he has no vi- gour in his talk." But my friend should have consi- dered that he himself was not in good humour ; so that it was not easy to talk to his satisfaction. — We sat con- tentedly at our inn. He then became merry, and ob- served how little we had either heard or said at Aber- deen : That the Aberdonians had not started a single mawkin (the Scottish word for hare) for us to pursue. Tuesday^ 2A>th August. We set out about eight in the morning, and break- fasted at Ellon. The landlady said to me, " Is not this the great Doctor, that is going about through the coun- try ?" — I said, " Yes." — " Ay, (said she,) we heard of him, I made an errand into the room on purpose to see him. There's something great in his appearance : it is a pleasure to have such a man in one's house; a man who does so much good. If I had thought of it, I would have shewn him a child of mine, who has had a lump on his throat for some tinle." — " But, (said I,) he is not a doctor of physick." — " Is he an oculist ?" said the landlord. — " No, (said I,) he is only a very learned man." — Landlord. " They say he is the greatest man in England, except Lord Mansfield." — Dr. Johnson was highly entertained with this, and I do think he was pleased too. He said, " I like the ex- beption ; to have called me the greatest man in Eng- land, would hav€ bee» an unmeaning compliment : but 78 JOURNAL OF A TOUR the exception marked that the praise was in earnest ; and, in Scotland, the exception must be Lord Mansfield, or — Sir John Pringle.^^ He told me a good story of Dr. Goldsmith. Gra- ham, who wrote *' Telemachus, a Masque," was sit- ting one night with him and Dr. Johnson, and was half dnuik. He rattled away to Dr. Johnson : " You are a clever fellow, to be sure ; but you cannot write an es- say like Addison, or verses like the Rape oftheLock.''^ At last he said,* " Doctor, I should be happy to see you at Eaton."- — " I shall be glad to wait on you," an- swered Goldsmith. — " No, (said Graham,) 'tis not you I mean. Dr. Minor ; 'tis Dr. Major, there." — Gold- smith was excessively hurt by this. He afterwards spoke of it himself. " Graham, (said he,) is a fellow to make one commit suicide." We had received a polite invitation to Slains castle. We arrived there just at three o'clock, as the bell for dinner was ringing. Though, from its being just on the North-east Ocean, no trees will grow here. Lord Errol has done all that can be done. He has cultivated his fields so as to bear rich crops of every kind, and he has made an excellent kitchen- garden, with a hot-house. I had never seen any of the family ; but there had been a card of invitation written by the honourable Charles Boyd, the earl's brother. We were conducted into the house, and at the dining-room door were met by that gentleman, whom both of us at first took to be lord Er- rol ; but he soon corrected our mistake. My lord was * I am sure I have related this story exactly as Dr. Johnson told it tome ; but a friend who has often heard him tetl it, informs ine that he usually introduced a circumstance which ought not to be omitted. " At last, sir, Graham, having now got to about the pitch of looking at one man, and talking to another, said, Doctor, &c." " What effect (Dr. Johnson used to add) this had on Goldsmith, ■who vas as irascible as a homgt, muy be easily conceived-" >t^"^ to THE HEBRIDES. 79 g'one to dine in the neighbourhood, at an entertainment given by Mr. Irvine of Drum. Lady Errol received us politely, and was very attentive to us during the time of dinner. There was nobody at table but her ladyship, Mr. Boyd, and some of the children, their governour and governess. Mr. Boyd put Dr. Johnson in mind of having dined with him at Gumming the Quaker's, along with a Mr. Hall and Miss Williams : this was a bond of connection between them. For me, Mr. Boyd's ac- quaintance with my father was enough. After dinner, Lady Errol favoured us with a sight of her young fa- mily, whom she made stand up in a row. There were six daughters and two sons. It was a very pleasing sight. Dr. Johnson proposed our setting out. Mr. Boyd said, he hoped we would stay all night ; his brother would be at home in the evening, and would be very sorry if he missed us. Mr. Boyd was called out of the room. I was very desirous to stay ia so comfortable a house, and I wished to see Lord Errol. Dr. Johnson, however, was right in resolving to go, if we were not- asked again, as it is Best to err on the safe side in such cases, and to be sure that one is quite welcome. To my great joy, when Mr. Boyd returned, he told Dr„ Johnson that it was Lady Errol who had called him out, and said that she would never let Dr. Johnson into the house again, if he went away that night ; and that she had ordered the coach, to carry us to view a great cu- riosity on the coast, after w^hich we should see the house. We cheerfully agreed. Mr. Boyd was engaged, in 1745-6, on the same side with many unfortunate mistaken noblemen and gentle- men. He escaped, and lay concealed for a year in the island ©f Arran, the ancient territorv of the Bovds, He ^ .'i-i JOURNAL OF A TOUR then went to France, and was about twenty years on the continent. He married a French lady, and now lived very comfortably at Aberdeen, and was much at Slains castle. He entertained us with great civility. He had a pompousness or formal plenitude in his con- versation, which I did not dislike. Dr. Johnson said, " there was too much elaboration in his talk." It gave me pleasure to see him, a steady branch of the family, setting forth all its advantages with much zeal. He told us that Lady Errol was one of the most pious and sensible women in the island ; had a good head, and as good a heart. He said, she did not use force or fear in educating her children. — Johnson. " Sir, she is wrong ; I would rather have the rod to be the general terror to all, to make them learn, than tell a child, if you do thus or thus, you will be more esteemed than your brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect which terminates in itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets his task, and there's an end on't ; whereas, by exciting emulation, and comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting mischief ; you make brothers and sisters hate each other." During Mr. Boyd's stay in Arran, he had found a chest of medical books, left by a surgeon there, and had read them till he acquired some skill in physick, in con- sequence of which he is often consulted by the poor. There were several here waiting for him as patients. 'We walked round the house till stopped by a cut made by the influx of the sea. The house is built quite upon the shore ; the windows look upon the main ocean, and the King of Denmark is Lord Errol's nearest neighbour on the north-east. We got immediately into the coach, and drove to Dunbui, a rock near the shore, quite covered with sea- ,;>.i.:y TO THE HEBRIDES. , $1 fowls; then to a circular bason of large extent, sur- rounded with tremendous rocks. On the quarter next the sea, there is a high arch in the rock, which the force of the tempest has driven out. This place is called Buchari's Buller, or the Buller of Buchan^ and the coun- try people call it the Pot. Mr. Boyd said it was so called from the French Bouloir. It may be more sim- ply traced from Boiler in our own language. We walk- ed round this monstrous cauldron. In some places the rock is very narrow; and on each side there is a sea deep enough for a man of war to ride in ; so that it is somewhat horrid to move along. However, there is earth and grass upon the rock, and a kind of road mark- ed out by the print of feet ; so that one makes it out pretty safely: yet it alarmed me to see Dr. Johnson striding irregularly along. He insisted on taking a boat and sailing into the Pot. We did so. He was stout, and wonderfully alert. The Buchanmen all shewing their teeth, and speaking with that strange sharp accent which distinguishes them, was to me a matter of curio- sity. He was not sensible of the difference of pronun- ciation in the south and North of Scotland, which I wonr dered at. As the entry into the Buller is so narrow that oars cannot be used as you go in, the method taken is, to row very hard when 3^ou come near it, and give the boat such a rapidity of motion that it glides in. Dr. Johnson observed what an effect this scene would have had, were we entering into an unknown place. There %re caves of considerable depth ; I think, one on each side. The boatmen had never entered either of th^em far enough to know the size. Mr. Bo} d told us that it is customary for the company at Peterhead well, to M m , ^ ,^ JOURNAL OF A TOUR make parties, and come and dine in one of the caves here. He told us, that, as Slains is at a considerable dis- tance from Aberdeen, Lord Errol, who has a very large family, resolved to have a surgeon of his own. With this view he educated one of his tenants' sons, Avho is now settled in a very neat house and farm just by, which we saw from the road. By the salary which the earl allows him, and the practice which he has had, he is in very easy circumstances. He had kept an exact ac- count of all that had been laid out on his education, and he came to his lordship one day and told him that he had arrived at a much higher situation than ever he ex- pected ; that he was now able to repay what his lordship had advanced, and begged he would accept of it. The earl was pleased with the generous gratitude and gen- teel offer of the man; but refused it. — Mr. Boyd also told us, Gumming the Quaker first began to distinguish himself, by writing against Dr. Leechman on Prayer, to prove it unnecessary, as God knows best what should be, and will order it without our asking: the old hack- neyed objection. When we returned to the house we found coffee and tea in the drawing-room. Lady Errol was not there, being, as I supposed, engaged with her young family. There is a bow window fronting the sea. Dr. Johnson repeated the ode, Jam satis terrisy while Mr. Boyd was with his patients. He spoke well in favour of entails, to preserve lines of men whom mankind are accustom- ed to reverence. His opinion was, that so much land should be entailed as that families should never fall into contempt, and as much left free as to give them all the advantages of property in case of any emergency. " If, (said hcj) the nobihty are suffered to sink into indigence, TO THE HEBRIDES. , ^^ they of course become corrupt; they are ready to do whatever the king chooses ; therefore it is fit they should be kept from becoming poor, unless it is fixed that when they fall below a certain standard of wealth they shall lose their peerages. We know the house of Peers have made noble stands, when the House of Commons durst not. The two last years of a parliament they dare not contradict the populace." This room is ornamented with a number of fine prints, and a whole length picture of Lord Errol, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. This led Dr. Johnson and me to talk of our amiable and elegant friend, whose panygerick he concluded by saying, " Sir Joshua Reynolds, sir, is the most invulnerable man I know ; the man with whom if you should quarrel, you would find the most difficulty how to abuse." . Dr. Johnson, observed, the situation here was the noblest he had ever seen, — better than Mount Edge- cumbe, reckoned the first in England ; because, at Mount Edgecumbe, the sea is bounded by land on the other side, and, though there is there the grandeur of a fleet, there is also the impression of there being a dock-yard, the circumstances of which are not agreea- ble. At Slains is an excellent old house. The noble owner has built of brick, along the square in the inside a gallery, both on the first and second story, the house being no higher ; so that he has always a dry walk ; and the rooms, to which formerly there was no approach but th^^ugh each other, have now all separate entries from the gallery,, which is hung with Hogarth's works, and other prints. We went and sat a vvhile -in the li- brary. There is a valuable numerous collection. It was chiefly made by Mr. Falconer, husband to the late 84. JOURNAL OF A TOUR Countess of Errol in her own right. This earl has added a good many modem books. About nine the Earl Came home. Captain Gordon of Park was with him. His lordship put Dr, Johnson in mind of their haying dined together in London, along with Mr. Beauclerk. I was exceedingly plea- sed with Lord Errol. His dignified person and agree- able countenance, with the most unaffected affability, gave me high satisfaction. From perhaps a weakness, or, as I rather hope, more fancy and warmth of feeling than is quite reasonable, my mind is ever impressed with admiration for persons of high birth, and I could, with the most perfect honesty, expatiate on Lord ErroPs good qualities ; but he stands in no need of my praise. His agreeable manners and softness of address prevent- ed that constraint which the idea of his being Lord High Constable of Scotland might otherwise have occaT sioned. He talked very easily and sensibly with his learned guest. I observed that Dr. Johnson, though he shewed that respect to his lordship, which, from prin- ciple, he always does to high rank, yet, when they came to argument, maintained that manliness which becomes the force and vigour of his understanding. To shew external deference to our superiors, is proper : to seem to yield to them in opinion, is meanness.* The earl * Lord Chesterfield, in his letters to his son , complains of one who argued in an indiscriminate manner with men of all ranks. Probably the noble lord had felt with some uneasiness what it was to encounter stronger abilities than his own. If a peer will engage at foils with his inferior in station, he n^i great an- tiquity. There is a draw bridge,- — what has been a moat, — and an ancient court. There is a hawthorn- tree, which rises hke a wooden pillar through the rooms of the castle ; for, by a strange conceit, the walls have been built round it. The thickness of the walls, the small slaunting windows, and a great iron door at the entrance on the second story as you ascend the stairs, all indicate the rude times in which this castle was erect- ed. There were here some large venerable trees. I was afraid of a quarrel between Dr. Johnson and Mr. M' Aulay, who talked slightingly of the lower En- glish dergy. The Doctor gave him a frowning look, and said, " This is a day of novelties : I have seen old trees in Scotland, and I have heard the English clergy treated with disrespect." I dreaded that a whole evening at Caldermanse would be heavy ; however, Mr. Grant, an intelligent and well-bred minister in the neighbourhood, was there, and assisted us by his conversation. Dr. Johnson, talk- ing of hereditary occupations in the Highlands, said, *' There is no harm in such a custom as this ; but it is wrong to enforce it, and oblige a man to be a taylor or a smith, because his father was one." This custom, however, is not peculiar to our Highlands : it is well known that in India a similar practice prevails. Mr. M' Aulay began a rhapsody against creeds and confessions. Dr. Johnson shewed, that "what he called imposition, was only a voluntary declaration of agree- ment in certain articles of faith, which a church has a right to require, just as any other society can insist on certain rules being observed by its members. Nobody is compelled to be of the church, as nobody is com- pelled to enter into a society."— Thi^ W9.s a vqry clear 100 ^ JOURNAL OF A TOUR and just view of the subject : but, M'Aulay could not be driven out of his track. Dr. Johnson said, " Sir, you are a bigot to laxness.'''* Mr. M'Aulay and I laid the map of Scotland before us ; and he pointed out a rout for us from Inverness, by Fort Augustus, to Glenelg, Sky, Mull, Icolmkill, Lorn, and Inveraray, which I wrote down. As my father was to begin the northern circuit about the 18th of September, it was necessary for us either to make our tour with great expedition, so as to get to Auchin- leck before he set out, or to protract it, so as not to be there till his return, which would be about the 10th of October. By M'Aulay's calculation, we were not to land in the Lorn till the 20th of September, I thought that the interruptions by bad da5'^s, or by occasional ex- cursions, might make it ten days later ; and I thought too, that we might perhaps go to Benbecula, and visit Clanranald, which would take a week of itself. Dr. Johnson went up with Mr. Grant to the library, which consisted of a tolerable collection ; but the Doc- tor; thought it rather a lady's library, with some Latin bobks in it by chance, than the library of a clergyman. It had only two of the Latin fathers, and one of the Greek fathers in Latin. I doubted whether Dr. John- son would be present at a Presbyterian prayer. I told Mr. M'Aulay so, and said that the Doctor might sit in the librar\^ while we were at family worship. Mr. M'Aulay said, he would omit it, rather than give Dr. Johnson offence : but 1 would by no means agree that an excess of politeness, even to so great a man, should prevent what I esteem as one of the best pious regula- tions. I know nothing more beneficial, more comfort- able, more agreeable, than that the little societies of each family should regularly assemble, and miite in TO THE HEBRIDES. ^ ICll: praise and prayer to our heavenly Father, from whom we daily receive so much good, and may hope for more in a higher state of existence. I mentioned to Dr. Johnson the over-delicate scrupulosity of our host. He said, he had no objection to hear the prayer. This was a pleasing surprise to me ; for he refused to go and hear Principal Robertson preach. " I will hear him, (said he,) if he will get up into a tree and preach; but I will not give a sanction, by my presence, to a Presbyterian assembly," Mr. Grant having prayed, Dr. Johnson said, his prayer was a very good one ; but objected to his not having introduced the Lord's Prayer. He told us, that an Italian of some note in London said once to him, " We have in our service a prayer called the Pater noster, which is a very fine composition. I wonder who is the author of it." — A singular instance of ignorance in a man of some literature and general inquiry ! Saturday^ 22>th August. Dr. Johnson had brought a Sallust with him in his pocket from Edinburgh. He gave it last night to Mr, M'Aulay's son, a smart young lad about eleven years old. Dr. Johnson had given an account of the educa- tion at Oxford, in all its gradations. The advantage of being a servitor to a youth of little fortune struck Mrs. M'Aulay much. I observed it aloud. Dr. John- son very handsomely and kindly said, that, if they would send their boy to him, when he was ready for the university, he would get him made a servitor, and perhaps woulrj. do more for liim. He could not pro- JOURNAL OF A TOUR mi«e to do more ; but would undertake for the servi- torship.* I should have mentioned that Mr. White, a Welch- man, who has been many years factor (i. e. steward) on the estate of Calder, drank tea with us last night, upon getting a note from Mr. M'Aulay, and asked us to his house. We had not time to accept of his invitation. He gave us a letter of introduction to Mr. Feme, mas- ter of stores at Fort George. He shewed it to me. It recommended " two celebrated gentlemen ; no less than Dr. Johnson, author of his Dictionary^ — and Mr. Boswell, kno^vn at Edinburgh by the name of Paoli." — He said, he hoped I had no objection to what he had written ; if I had, he would alter it. 1 thought it was a pity to check his effusions, and acquiesced ; taking care, however, to seal the letter, that it might not ap- pear that I had read it. A conversation took place, about saying grace at breakfast (as we do in Scotland) as well as at dinner and supper ; in which Dr. Johnson said. " It is enough if we have stated seasons of prayer ; no matter when. A man may as well pray when he mounts his horse, or a woman when she milks her cow, (which Mr. Grant told us is done in the Highlands,) as at meals ; and custom is to be followed, "f We proceeded to Fort George. When we came into the square, I sent a soldier with the letter to Mr. * Dr. Johnson did not neglect what he had undertaken. By his interest with the Rev. Dr. Adams, master of Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was edu- cated for some time, he obtained a servitorship for young M'AuJay. But it seems he had other views ; and I believe went abroad. t He could not bear to have it thought, that, in any instance whatever, the Scots are more pious than the English. I think grace as proper at breakfast as at any other meal. It is the pleasantest mieal we have. Dr. Johnson hasal- lowed the peculiar merit of breakfast in Scotland. TO THE HEBRIDES. 103 Ferne. He came to us immediately, and along with him came Major Brewse of the Engineers, pronounced Bruce. He said he believed it was originally the same Norman name with Bruce. That he had dined at ahouse in London, where were three Bruces, one of the Irish line, one of the Scottish line, and himself of the English line. He said he was shewn it in the Herald's office spelt fourteen different ways. I told him the different spellings of my name. Dr. Johnson observed, that there had been great disputes about the spelling of Shak- speare's name ; at last it was thought it would be set- tled by looking at the original copy of his will ; but, itpon examining it, he was found to have written it him- self no less than three different ways. Mr. Ferne and Major Brewse first carried us to wait on Sir Eyre Coote, whose regiment, the 37th, was lying here, and who then commanded the fort. He asked us to dine with him, which we agreed to do. Before dinner we examined the fort. The Major explained the fortification to us, and Mr. Ferne gave us an account of the stores. Dr. Johnson talked of the proportions of charcoal and salt-petre in making gun- powder, of granulating it, and of giving it a gloss. He made a very good figure upon these topicks. He said to me afterwards, that " he had talked ostentatiously ^ — ^ We reposed ourselves a little in Mr. Feme's house. He had every thing in neat order as in England ; and a tolerable collection of books. I looked into Pennant's Tour in Scotland. He says little of this fort ; but that *' the barracks, &c. form several streets." This is ag- grandising. Mr. Ferne observed, if he had said they form a square, with a row of buildings before it, he would have given a juster description. Dr. Johnson remarked, " how seldom descriptions correspond with lOi JOURNAL OF A TOUR realities ; and the reason is, that people do not write them till some time after, and then their imagination has added circumstances." We talked of Sir Adolphus Oughton. The major said, he knew a great deal for a military man. — Johnson, " Sir, you will find few men of any profession who know more. Sir Adolphus is a very extraordinary man ; a man of boundless curiosity and unwearied diligence." I know not how the Major contrived to introduce the contest between VVarburton and Lowth. — Johnson. ^'' Warburton kept his temper all along, while Lowth was in a passion. Lowth published some of Warbur- ton's letters. Warburton drew him on to write some very abusive letters, and then asked his leave to publish them; which he knew Lowth could not refuse, after what he had done. So that Warburton contrived that he should publish apparently with Lowth's consent, what could not but shew Lowth in a disadvantageous light."* At three the drum beat for dinner. I, for a little while, fancied myself a military man, and it pleased me. We went to Sir Eyre Coote's, at the governour's house, and found him a most gendeman-like man. His lady is a very agreeable woman, with an uncommonly mild and sweet tone of voice. There was a pretty large company : Mr. Feme, Major Brewse, and several offi- cers. Sir Eyre had come from the East Indies by land, through the Desarts of Arabia. He told us, the Arabs could live five days without victuals, and subsist for * Here Dr. Johnson gave us part of a conversation held between a Great Per- sonage and him, in the library at the Queen's Palace, in the course of which this contest was considered. I have been at great pains to get that conversation as perfectly preserved as possible. It may perhaps at some future time be given to the pyblick. TO THE HEBRIDES. 105 three weeks on nothing else but the blood of their ca- mels, who could lose so much of it as would suffice for that time, without being exhausted. He highly praised the virtue of tlie Arabs ; their fidelity, if they under- took to conduct any person; and said, they would sa- crifice their lives rather than let him be robbed. Dr. Johnson, who is always for maintaining the superiority of civilized over uncivilized men, said, " Why, sir, I can see no superiour virtue in this. A serjeant and twelve men, who are my guard, will die, rather than that I shall be robbed." — Colonel Pennington, of the 37th regiment, took up the argument with a good deal of spirit, and ingenuity. — Pennington. " But the soldiers, are compelled to this, by fear of punishment." — John- son. " Well, sir, the Arabs are compelled by the fear of midxa^y ^Pennington. " The soldiers have the same fear of infamy, and the fear of punishment be- sides; so have less virtue, because they act less volun- tarily." — Lady Coote observed very well, that it ought to be known, if there was not, among the Arabs, some punishment for not being faithful on such occasions. We talked of the stage. I observed, that we had not now such a company of actors as in the last age ; Wilks, Booth, &c. &c. — Johnson. " You think so, be- cause there is one who excels all the rest so much : you compare them with Garrick, and see the deficiency. Garrick's great distinction is his universality. He can represent all modes of life, but that of an easy fine bred gentleman. ' ' — Pennington. ' ' He should, give over play- ing young parts." — Johnson. " He does not take them now ; but he does not leave off those which he has becH used to play, because he does them better than any one else can do them. If you had generations of actors, if they swarmed like bees, the young ones might drive off p 106 JOURNAL OF A TOUR the old. Mrs. Gibber, I think, got more reputation than she deserved, as she had a great sameness ; though her expression was undoubtedly veiy fine. Mrs. Clive was the best player I ever saw. Mrs. Pritchard was a verj^ good one ; but she had something affected in her' man- ner : I imagine she had some player of tlie former age in her eye, which occasioned it." Colonel Pennington said, Garrick sometimes failed in emphasis ; as for instance, in Hamlet^ I will speak daggers to her ; but use noiw. instead of I will s/ieak daggers to her ; but tise none. We had a dinner of two complete courses, variety of wines, and the regimental band of musick playing in in the square, before the windows, after it. I enjoyed this day much. We were quite easy and cheerful. Dr. Johnson said, " I shall always remember this fort with gratitude." I could not help being struck with some admiration, at finding upon this barren sandy point, such buildings, — such a dinner, — such company: it was like enchantment. Dr» Johnson, on the other hand, said to me more rationally, that " it. did not strike him as any thing extraordinary ; because he knew, here was a large sum of money expended in building a fort ; here was a regiment. If there had been less than what we found, it would have surprised him.'.' He looked coolly and deliberately through all the gradations : my warm ima- gination jumped from the barren sands to the splendid dinner and brilliant company. Like the hero in Love in a Hollow Tree, " Without ands or ifs, " I leapt from off the sands upon the cliffs." TO THE HEBRIDES. 107 The whole scene gave me a strong impression of the power and excellence of human art. ' We left the fort between six and seven o'clock. Sir Eyre Coote, Colonel Pennington, and several more, ac- companied us down stairs, and saw us into our chaise. There could not be greater attention paid to any visi- tors. Sir Eyre spoke of the hardships which Dr. John- son had before him. — Boswell. " Considering what he has said of us, we must make him feel something rough in Scotland." — Sir Eyre said to him, "You must change your name, sir." — Boswell. " Aye, to Dr. M'Gregor." We got safely to Inverness, and put up at Macken- zie's inn. Mr. Keith, the collector of Excise here, my old acquaintance at Ayr, who had seen us at the Fort, visited us in the evening, arid engaged us to dine with him next day, promising to breakfast with us, and take us to the English chapel ; so that we were at once com- modiously arranged. < •■ Not finding a letter here that I expected, I felt a momentary impatience to be at home. Transient clouds darkened my imagination, and in those clouds I saw events from which I shrunk : but a sentence or two of the Rambler's conversation gave me firmness, and I con- sidered that I was upon an expedition for which I had wished for years, and the recollection of which would be a treasure to me for life. Sunday^ 29th August. Mr. Keith breakfasted w^ith us. Dr. Johnson expa- tiated rather too strongly upon the benefits derived to Scotland frojn the Union, and the bad state of our peo- ple before it. I am entertained with his copious exag- geration upon that subject ; but I am uneasy when 10§ JOURNAL OF A TOUR people are by, who do not know him as well as I d6, and may be apt to think him narrow-minded.* I there- fore diverted the subject. The English chapel, to which we went this morn- ing was but mean. The altar Was a bare fir table, with a coarse stool for kneeling on, covered with a piece of thick sail cloth doubled, by way of cushion. The congre- gation was small. Mr. Tait, the clergyman, read prayers verv well, thous:h with much of the Scotch accent. He preached on " Love your Enemies.'''' It was remarka- ble that, when talking of the connections amongst nien, he said, that some connected themselves with men of distinguished talents, and since they could not equal them, tried to deck themselves with their merit, by being their companions. The sentence was to this pur- pose. It had an odd coincidence with what might be said of my connecting myself with Dr. Johnson. After church, we walked down to the Quay. We then went to Macbeth 's castle. I had a romantick sa- tisfaction in seeing Dr. Johnson actually in it. It per- fectly corresponds with Shakspeare's description, which Sir Joshua Reynolds has so happily illustrated, in one of his notes on our immortal poet : " This castie hath a pleasant seat : the air " Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself " Unto our gentle sense," &c. Just as we came out of it, a raven perched on one of the chimney-tops, and croaked. Then I repeated « , — The raven himself is hoarse, "That croaks the fatal enterance of Duncan " Under my battlements." * It is remarkable that Dr. Johnson read this gentle remonstrance, and took no notite of it to me. TO THE HEBRIDES. 109 We dined at Mr. Keith's. Mrs. Keith was rather too attentive to Dr. Johnson, asking him many ques- tions about his drinking only water. He repressed that observation, by saying to me, " You ma^remember that Lady Errol took no notice of this." Dr. Johnson has the happy art (for wihich I have heard my father praise the old Earl of Aberdeen) of instructing himself, by making every man he meets tell him something of what he knows best. He led Keith to talk to him of the Excise in Scotlandij and in the course of cohversation, mentioned that hisfriend Mr. Thrale, the great brewer, paid twenty thousand pounds a year to the revenue; and that he had four casks, each of which holds sixteen hundred barrels, — above a thousand hogsheads. After this there was little conversation that deserves to be remembered. I shall therefore here again glean what I have omitted on former days. Dr. Gerrard, at Aberdeen, told us, that when he was in Wales, he was shewn a valley inhabited by Danes, who still retain their own language, and are quite a distinct people. Dr. Johnson thought it could not be true, or all the kingdom must have heard of it. He said to me, as we travelled, " these people, sir, that Gerrard talks of, may have somewhat of a peregrinity in their dialect, which relation has augmented to a different language." I asked him if peregrinity was an English word : he laughed, and said, " No." I told him this was the se- cond time I had heard him coin a word. When Foote broke his leg, I observed that it would make him fitter for taking off George Faulkner as Peter Paragraph, poor George having a wooden leg. Dr. Johnson at that time said, " George will rejoice at the depeditation of Foote ; and when I challenged that word, laughed, Mk 110 JOURNAL OF A TOUU and owned he had made it ; and added that he had not made above three or four in his Dictionary.* Having conducted Dr. Johnson to our inn, I beg- ged permission to leave him for a little, that I might run about and pay some short visits to several good peo- ple of Inverness. He said to me, " You have all the old-fashioned principles, good and bad." — I acknow- ledge I have. That of attention to relations in the re- motest degree, or to worthy persons in every state whom I hav© once known, I inherit from my father. It gave me m%ch satisfaction to hear every body at Inver- ness speak of him with uncommon regard. — Mr. Keith and Mr. Grant, whom we had seen at Mr. M'Aulay's, supped with us at the inn. We had roasted kid, which Dr. Johnson had never tasted before. He re- lished it 'much» Monday^ 30th August. This day we were to begin our equitation, as I said ; for / would needs make a word too. It is remarkable^ that my noble, and to me most constant friend, the Earl of Pembroke, (who, if tliere is too much ease on my part, will be pleased to pardon what his benevolent, gay, social intercourse, and lively correspondence, have sensibly produced,) has since hit upon the very same word. The title of the first edition of his lordship's very useful book was, in simple terms, "A Method of break- * When upon the subject of th]s fieregrinity, he told me some particulars con- cernmg the compilation of his Dictionary, and concerning his throwing off Lord Chesterfield's patronage, of which very erroneous accounts have been circulated. These particulars, with others which he afterwards gave me, — as al^o his cele- brated letter to Lord Chesterfield, which he dicated tome, — I reserve for Ms "Life"' ^.Xp THE HEBRIDES. Ill * . ing Horses,^^and teaching Soldiers to ride." The title of the second edition is, '' Military E(^uitation.'" We might have taken a chaise to Fort Augustus ; but, had we not hired horses at Inverness, we should not have found them afterwards : so we resolved to begin here to ride. We had three horses, for Dr. John- son, myself, and Joseph, and one which carried our port- manteaus, and two Highlanders who walked along with us, John Hay and Lauchlan Vass, whom Dr. Johnson has remembered with credit in his Journey, though he has omitted their names. Dr. Johnson ro(|e very well. About three miles beyond Inverness, we saw, just by the road, a very complete specimen of what is call- ed a Druid's temple. There was a double circle, one of very large, the other of smaller stones. Dr. John- son justly observed, that, "to go and see one druidical temple is only to see that it is nothing, for there is neither art nor power in it; and seeing one is quite enough." It was a delightful day. Lochness, and the road upon the side of it, shaded with birch trees, and the hills above it, pleased us much. The scene was as seques- tered and agreeably wild as could be desired, and for a time engrossed all our attention. To see Dr. Johnson in any new situation is always an interesting object to me; and, as I saw him now for the first time on horseback, jaunting about at his ease in quest of pleasure and novelty, the very different oc- cupations of his former laborious life, his admirable pro- ductions, his London^ his Rambler^ ^c. &c. immediate- ly presented themselves to my mind, and the .contrast made a strong impression on my imagination. \^i When we had advanced a good way by the side of Lochness, I perceived a little hut, witli an old-looking 112 JOURNAL OF A TOUR woman at the door of it. I thought here might be a scene that would amuse Dr. Johnson ; so I mentioned it to him, " Let's go in," said he. So we dismount- ed, and we and our guides entered the hut. It was a wretched little hovel of earth only, I think, and for a win- dow had only a small hole, which was stopped with a piece of turf, that was taken out occasionally to let in light. In the middle of the room or space which we entered, was a fire of peat, the smoke going out at a hole in the roof. She had a pot upon it, with goat's flesh, boiling. There was at one end under the same roof, but divided by a kind of partition made of wattles, a pen or fold in which we saw a good many kids. Dr. Johnson was curious to know where she slept. I asked one of the guides, who questioned her in Erse* She answered with a tone of emotion, saying (as he told us,) she was afraid we wanted to go to bed to her. This Goquetry^ or whatever it may be called, of so wretched a being, was truly ludicrous. Dr. Johnson and I after- wards were merry upon it. I said, it was he who alarm- ed the poor woman's virtue. — " No, sir, (said he) she'll say, ' there came a wicked young fellow, a wild dog, who I believe would have ravished me, had there not been with him a grave old gentleman, who repressed him ; but when he gets out of the sight of his tutor, I'll warrant you he 'Jji spare no woman he meets, young or old." — " No, sir, (I replied,) she'll say, ' There was a terrible ruffian who would have forced me, had it not been for a civil decent young man, who, I take it, was an angel sent from heaven to protect me." Dr. Jolmson would not hurt her delicacy, by insist- ing on " seeing her bed-chamber," like Archer in the Beaux Stratagem. But my curiosity was more ardent ; I lighted a piece of paper, and went into the place where TO THE HEBRIDES. 113 the bed was. There was a little partition of wicker, rather more neatly done than that for the fold, and close by the wall was a kind of bedstead of wood with heath upon it by way of bed; at the foot of which I saw some sort of blankets or covering rolled up in a heap. The woman's name was Fraser ; so was her husband's. He was a man of eighty. Mr. Fraser of Balnain allows him to live in this hut, and keep sixty goats, for taking care of his woods, where he then was. They had live chil- dren, the eldest only thirteen. Two were gone to In- verness to buy meal; the rest were looking after the goats. This contented family had four stacks of bar- ley, twenty-four sheaves in each. They had a few fowls. We were informed that they lived all the spring without meal, upon milk and curds and whey alone. "What they get for their goats, kids, and fowls, main- tains them during the rest of the year. She asked us to sit down and take a dram. I saw one chair. She said, she was as happy as any woman in Scotland. She could hardly speak any English, ex- cept a few detached words. Dr. Johnson was pleased at seeing, for the first time, such a state of human life. She asked for snuff. It is her luxury, and she uses a great deal. We had none ; but gave her sixpence a piece. She then brought out her whisky bottle. I tasted it; as did Joseph and our guides : so I gave her sixpence more. She sent us away with many prayers in Erse. We dined at a little publick house called the Gene- raVs Hut, from General Wade, who was lodged there when he commanded in the North. Near it is the meanest parish K'lrk I ever saw. It is a shame it should be on a high road. After dinner, we passed through a good deal of mountainous country. I had known Mr. 114 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Trapaud, the deputy governour of fort Augustus twelve years ago, at a circuit at Inverness, where my father was judge. I sent forward one of our guides, and Joseph, with a card to him, that he might know Dr. Johnson and I were coming up, leaving it to him to invite us or not. It was dark when we arrived. The inn was wretched. Government ought to build one, or give the resident governour an additional salary ; as, in the present state of things, he must necessarily be put to a great expence in entertaining travellers. Joseph an- nounced to us, when we alighted, that the governour waited for us at the gate of the fort. We walked to it. He met us, and with much civility conducted us to his house. It was comfortable to find ourselves in a well- built little square, and a neatly furnished house, in good company, and with a good supper before us ; in short, with all the conveniencies of civilized life in the midst of rude mountains. Mrs. Trapaud, and the governour's daughter, and her husband, Captain Newmarsh, were all most obliging and polite. The governour had ex- cellent animal spirits, the conversation of a soldier, and somewhat of a Frenchman, to which his extraction en- titles him. He is brother to General Cyrus Trapaud. We passed a very agreeable evening. Tuesday^ 3 \st August. The governour has a very good garden. W^e look- ed at it, and at all the rest of the fort, which is but small, and may be commanded from a variety of hills around. We also looked at the galley or sloop belong- ing to the fort, which sails upon the Loch, and brings what is wanted for the garrison. Captains Urie and Darippe, of the 15th regiment of foot, breakfasted with TO THE HEBRIDES. 115 US. They had served in America, and entertained Dr. Johnson much with an account of the Indians. He said, he could make a very pretty book out of them, were he to stay there. G'overnour Trapaud was much struck with Dr. Johnson. " I like to hear him, (said he,) it is so majestick. I should be glad to hear him speak in your court.'' — He pressed us to stay dinner ; but I con- sidered that we had a rude road before us, which we could more easily encounter in the morning, and that it was hard to say when we might get up, were we to sit down to good entertainment, in good company : I there- fore begged the governour would excuse us. — Here too, I had another very pleasing proof how much my father is regarded. The governour expressed the highest re- spect for him, and bade me tell him, that if he would come that way on the Northern circuit, he would do him all the honours of the garrison. Between twelve and one we set out, and travelled eleven miles, through a wild country, till we came to a house in Glenmorison, called Anoch^ kept by a M'Queen.* Our landlord was a sensible fellow: he had learnt his grammar, and " Dr. Johnson justly ob- served, that " a man is the better for that as long as he lives." There were some books here: a Treatise against Drunkenness, translated from the French ; a volume of the Spectator ; a volume of Prideaux's Connection, and Cyrus's Travels. M*Queen said he had more volumes ; and his pride seemed to be much piqued that we were surprised at his having books. * A M'Queen is a Highland mode of expression. An Englishman would say one M'Queen . But where there are clans or tribes of men, distinguished by patro- nymick surnames, the individuals of each are considered as if they were of differ- ent species, at least as much as nations are distinguished ; so that a M'^teen, a II'Donald, a M'Lean, is said, as we say a Frenchman, an Italian, a Spaniard, 116 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Near to this place we had passed a party of soldiers, under a Serjeant's commaitd, at work upon the road. We gave thtm two shillings to drink. They came to our inn, and made merry in the barn. We went and paid them a visit, Dr. Johnson saying, " Come let's go and give 'em another shilling a-piece." We did soj and he was saluted "my lord" by all of them. He is really generous, loves influence, and has the way of gaining it. He said, "I am quite feudal, sir." Here I agree with him. I said, I regretted I was not the head of a clan ; however, though not possessed of such an Hereditary advantage, I would always endeavor to make my tenants follow me. I could not be a patriarchal chief, but I would be a feudal chief. The poor soldiers got too m\ich liquor. Some of them fought, and left blood upon the spot, and cursed whiskey next morning. The house here was built of thick turfs, and thatched witli thinner turfs and heath. It had three rooms in length, and a little room which projected. Where we sat, the side- walls were wain- scotted^ as Dr. Johnson said, with wicker, very neatly plaited. Our landlord had made the whole with his own hands. After dinner, M'Queen sat by us a while, and talk- ed with us. He said all the Laird of Glenmorison's people would bleed for him, if they were well used ; but that seventy men had gone out of the Glen to America. That he himself intended to go next year ; for that the rent of his farm, which twenty years ago was only five pounds, was now raised to twenty pounds. That he could pay ten pounds, and live ; but no more. Dr. Johnson said, he wished M'Queen laird of Glenmorison, and the laird to go to America. M'Queen very generously answered, he should be sorry TO THE HEBRIDES. 117 for it ; for the laird could not shift for himself in Ameri- ca as he could do. I talked of the officers whom we had left to-day ; how much service they had seen, and how little they got for it, even of fame. — Johnson. " Sir, a soldier gets as little as any man can get." — Boswell. " Gold- smith has acquired more fame than all the officers last war, who were not Generals." — Johnson. "Why, sir, you will find ten thousand fit to do what they did, be- fore you find one who does what Goldsmith has done. You must consider, that a thing is valued according to its rarity. A pebble that paves the street is in itself more useful than the diamond upon a lady's finger."— I wish our friend Goldsmith had heard this. I yesterday expressed my wonder that John Hay, one of our guides, who had been pressed aboard a man of war, did not choose to continue in it longer than nine months, after which time he got off. — Johnson. " Why, sir, no man will be a sailor, who has contrivance enough to get himself into a jail ; for, being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned." We had tea in the afternoon, and our landlord's daughter, a modest civil girl, very neatly drest, made it for us. She told us, she had been a year at Inverness, and learnt reading and writing, sewing, knotting, work- ing lace, and pastry. Dr. Johnson made her a present of a book which he had bought at Inverness.* * This book has given rise to much inquiry, which has ended in ludicrous sur- prise. Several ladies, wishing to learn the kind of reading which the great and good Dr. Johnson esteemed most fit for a young woman, desired to know what book he had selected for this Highland nymph. " They never adverted, (said he,) that I had no choice in the matter. I have said that I presented her with a book which I happened to have about me." — And what was this book ? — My readers, prepare your features for merriment. It was Cocker's Arithmetick ! — Wherever this was mentioned, there was a loud laugh, at which Dr. Johnson, when pre- 118 JOURNAL OF A TOUR The room had some deals laid acros the joists, as a kind of cieling. There were two beds in the room, and a woman's gown was hung on a rope to make a curtain of separation between them. Joseph had sheets, which my wife had sent with us, laid on them. We had much hesitation, whether to undress, or lie down with our clothes on. I said at last, "I'll plunge in ! There will be less harbour for vermin about me, when I am strip- ped ! — Dr. Johnson said, he was like one hesitating whether to go into the cold bath. At last he resolved too. I observed, he might have served a campaign.^^ Johnson. " I could do all that can be done by patience : whether I should have strength enough, I know not." — He was in excellent humour. To see the Rambler as I saw him to-night, was really an amusement. I yes- terday told him, I was thinking of writing a poetical letter to him, on his return from Scotland^ in the style of Swift's humorous epistle in the character of Mary Gulliver to her husband. Captain Lemuel Gulliver, on his return to England from the country of the Houyhnhnms : " At early morn I to the market haste, " Studious in ev'ry thing to please thy taste. " A curiousybwZ and sjiaragrass I chose ; "(For I remember you were fond of those :) "Three shillings cost the first, the last sev'n groats j " Sullen you turn from both, and call for oats." sent, used sometimes to be a littleangry. One day, when we were dining at Ge- neral Oglethorpe's, where we had many a valuable day, 1 ventured to interrogate him, " But, sir, is it not somewhat singular that you should happen to have Coder's Arithmetici about you on your journey ? What made you buy such a book at Inverness ?" — He gave nne a very sufficient answer. " Why, sir, if you are to have but one book with you upon a journey, let it be a book of science. When you have read through a book of entertainment, you know it, and it can do no more for you ; but a book of science is inexhaustible." TO THE HEBRIDES. 119 He laughed, and asked in whose name I would write it. I said, in Mrs. Thrale's. He was angry. " Sir if you have any sense of decency or delicacy, you won't do that!"— ^o^-rrBE HEBRIDES. 15S the want is supplied. Dr. Johnson observed to ftie, how quietly people will endure an evii, which they might at any time very easily remedy ; and mentioned as an in- stance, that the present family of Rasay had possessed the island for more than four hundred years, and never made a commodious landing place, though a few men with pickaxes might have cut an ascent of stairs out of any part of the rock in a week's time. The north l^d of Rasay is as rocky as the south end. From it I saw the little isle of Fladda, belonging to Rasay, all fine green ground : — and Rona, which is of so rocky a soil that it appears to be a pavement. I was told however that it has a great deal of grass, in the interstices. The Laird has it all in his own hands. At this end of the island of Rasay is a cave in a striking situation. It is in a recess of a great cleft, a good way up from the sea. Before it the ocean roars, being dash- ed against monstrous broken rocks ; grand and awful propugnacula. On the right hand of it is a longitudinal cave, very low at the entrance, but higher as you ad- vance. The sea having scooped it out, it seems strange mA unaccountable that the interior part, where the water must have operated with less force, should be loftier than that which is more immediately exposed to its vio - lence. The roof of it is all covered with a kind of petrifications formed by drops, which perpetualty di||il from it. The first cave has been a place of much safe- ty. — I find a great difficulty in describing visible objects. I must own too that the old castle and cave, like many other things, of which one hears much, did ^^ answer my expectations. People are every v^diere apt to mag- nify the curiosities of their country. This island has abundance of black cattle, sheep. and goats;-— a good many horses, which are used #)r 154 JXiURNAL OF A TOUR ploughing, carrying out dung, and other works of hus- bandry. I beheve the people never ride. There arc indeed no roads through the island, unless a few detach- ed beaten tracks deserve that name. Most of the houses are upon the shore; so that all the people have little boats, and catch fish. There is great plenty of pota- toes here. There are black-cock in extraordinary abun- dance, moor-fowl, plover, and wild pigeons, which seem- ed to me to be the same as we have in pigeon houses, in their state of nature. Rasay has no pigeon house. There are no hares nor rabbits in the island, nor was there ever known to be a fox, till last year, when one was landed on it by some malicious person, without wh^|C aid he could not have got thither, as that animal is known to be a very bad swimmer. He has done much mis- chief. There is a great deal of fish caught in the sea round Rasay ; it is a place where one may live in plen- ty, and even in luxury. There are no deer ; but Rasay told us he would get some. They reckon it rains nine months in the year in this island, owing to its being directly opposite to the west- ern coast of Sky, where the watery clouds are broken by high mountains. The hills here, and indeed all the heathy grounds in general, abound with the sweet-smeL ling plant which the Highlanders call gaul, and (I think) with dwarf juniper in many places. There is enough of turf, which is their fuel, and it is thought there is a mine of coal. — Such are the observations which I made upon the island of Rasay, upon comparing it with the description given by Martin, whose book Ave had with us. There has been an ancient league between the fami- lies of Macdonald and Rasay. Whenever the head of either family dies, his s\vord is given to the head of the ii TO THE HEBRIDES. 155 other. The present Rasay has the late Sir Janies Mac- donald's sword. Old Rasay joined the Highland army in 1745, but prudently guarded against a forfeiture, by previously conveying his estate to the present gentle- man, his eldest son. On that occasion. Sir Alexander, father of the late Sir James Macdonald, was very friend- ly to his neighbour. " Don't be afraid, Rasay, said he ; I'll use all my interest to keep you safe ; and if your estate should be taken, I'll buy it for the family." — And he would have done it. Let me now gather some gold dust, — some more fragments of Dr. Johnson's conversation, without regard to order of time. He said, " he thought very highly of Bentley ; that no man now went so far in the kinds of learning that he cultivated; that the many attacks on him were owing to env}^, and to a desire of being known, by being in competition with such a man ; that it was safe to attack him, because he never answered his op- ponents, but let them die away. It was attacking a man who would not beat them, because his beating them would make them live the longer. And he was right not to answer ; for, in his hazardous method of writing, he could not but be often enough wrong ; so it was bet- ter to leave things to their general appearance, than own himself to have erred in particulars." — He said, " Mallet was the prettiest drest puppet about town, and always kept good company J;That, from his w^ay of talk- ing, he saw, and always said, that he had not written any part of the Life of the Duke of Marlborough, though perhaps he intended to do it at some time, in which case he was not culpable in taking the pension. That he imagined the Duchess furnished the materials for her Apology, which Hooke wrote, and Hooke fur- nished the words and the order, and all that in which 156 JOURNAL OF A TOtJR the art of writing consists. That the duchess had not superior parts, but was a bold frontless woman, who knew how to make the most of her opportunities in Ufe. That Hooke got a large sum of money for writing her Apology. That he wondered Hooke should have been weak enough to insert so profligate a maxim, as that to tell another's secret to one's friend, is no breach of con- fidence ; though perhaps Hooke, who was a virtuous- mian, as his History shews, and did not wish her well, though he wrote her Apology, might see its ill tendency, and yet insert it at her desire. He was acting only min- isterially." — I apprehend, however, that Hooke was bound to give his best advice. I speak as a lawyer. Though I have had clients whose causes I could not, as a private man, approve ; jQ.t, if I undertook them, I would not do any thing that might be prejudicial to them, even at their desire, without Avarning them of their danger. Saturday^ \lth September. It w\is a storm of wind arid rain : so we could not set out. I wrote some of this Journal, and talked awhile with D. . Johnson in his room, and passed the day, I cannot wcil say how, but very pleasantly. I was here amused to find Mr. Cumberland's comedy of the Fashionable Lover, in which he has very well drawn a Highland character, Colin M'CIeod, of the stime name with the family under whose roof we now were. Dr. Johnson was much pleased with the laird cf Macleod, who is indeed a most promising youth, and with a noble spirit struggles with difficulties, and endeavours to pre- serve his people. He has been left with an incumbrance of forty thousand pounds' debt, and annuities to the 1& TO THE HEBRIDES. 157 amount of thirteen hundred pounds a year. Dr. John- son said, " If he gets the better of all this, he'll be a hero ; and I hope he will. I have not met with a young man who had more desire to learn,, or who has learnt more. I have seen nobody that I wish more to do a, kindness to than Macleod." — Such was the honourable eulogium, on this young chieftain, pronounced by an ac- curate observer, whose praise was never lightly be- stowed. There is neither justice of peace, nor constable, in Rasay. Sky has Mr. M'Cleod of Ulinish, who is the sheriff substitute, and no other justice of peace. The want of the execution of justice is much felt among the islanders. Macleod very sensibly observed, that taking away the heritable jurisdictions had not been of such service in the islands, as was imagined. They had not authority enough in lieu of them. What could for- merly have been settled at once, must now either take much time and trouble, or be neglected. Dr. Johnson said, " A country is in a bad state, which is governed only by lav/s ; because a thousand things occur for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose. Now destroying the authority of the chiefs set the people loose. It did not pretend to bring any positive good, but only to cure some evil : and I am not well enough acquainted with the countr}^ to know what degree of evil the heritable jurisdictions occasion- ed." — I maintained hardly any; because the chiefs gene- rally acted right, forthcir own sakes. Dr. Johnson was now wishing to move. There was not enough of intellectual entertainment for him, after he had satisfied his curiosity, which he did, by asking questions, till he had exhausted the island; and where there was so numerous a company, mostly young peg- 158 JOURNAL OF A TOUR pie, there was such a flow of familiar talk, so much noise, and so much singing and dancing, that little op- portunity was left for his energetick conversation. He seemed sensible of this ; for when I told him how hap- tpy they were at having him there, he said, " Yet we have not been able to entertain them much." — I was fretted, from irritability of nerves, by M'Cruslick's too obstreperous mirth. I complained of it to my friend, observing we should be better if he was gone. — " No, sir (said he). He puts something into our society, and takes nothing out of it." — Dr. Johnson, however, had several opportunities of instructing the company ; but I am sorry to say, that I did not pay sufficient attention- to what passed, as his discourse now turned chiefly on mechanicks, agriculture, and such subjects, rather than on science and wit. — Last night Lady Rasay shewed him the operation of wawking cloth, that is, thickening it in the same manner as is done by a mill. Here it is performed by women, who kneel upon the ground, and rub it with both their hands, singing an Erse song all the time. He was asking questions while they were performing this operation, and, amidst their loud and wild howl, his voice was heard even in the room above. They dance here every night. The queen of our ball was the eldest Miss Macleod, of Rasay, an elegant- well-bred woman, and celebrated for her beauty over all those regions, by the name of Miss Flora Rasay.* There seemed to be no jealousy, no discontent among them ; and the gaiety of the scene was such, that I for a moment dqubted whether unhappiness had any place * She had been some time at Edhibm-gh, to which she again went, and was married to my worthy neighbour. Colonel Mure Campbell, now Ear! of Lou- doun ; but she died soon afterwards, leaving one daughter. TO THE HEBRIDES. 159 in Rasay. But my delusion was soon dispelled, by re- collecting the following lines of my fellow traveller : '• Yet hope not life frojn pain or danger free, . *' Or think, the doom of man revers'd for thee 1" Sunday^ 12th September, It was a beautiful day, and although we did not ap- prove of travelling on Sunday, we resolved to set out, as we were in an island, from whence one must take occasion as it serves. Macleod and Talisker sailed in a,, boat of Rasay's for Sconser, to take the shortest way to Dunvegan. . M'Cruslick went with them to Sconser, from whence he was to go to Slate, and so to the main land. We were resolved to pay a visit at Kingsburgh, and see the celebrated Miss Flora Macdonald, who is married to the present Mr. Macdonald of Kingsburgh ; so took that road, though not so near. All the family, but Lady Rasay, walked down to the shore to see us de- part. Rasay himself went with us in a laj-ge boat, with eight oars, built in his island ; as did Mr. Malcolm M'Cleod, Mr. Donald M'Queen, Dr. Macleod, and some others. We had a most pleasant sail between Rasay and Sky ; and passed by a cave, where Martin says fowls were caught by lighting fire in the mouth of it. Malcolm remembers this. But it is not now prac- tised, as few fowls come into it. W"e spoke of death. Dr. Johnson on this subject observed, that the boastings of some men, as to dying easily, were idle talk, proceeding from partial views. I mentioned Hawthornden's Cypress-grove, where it is said that the world is a mere show ; and that it is un- 3jeasonable for a mati to wish to continue in the show- 16.0 JOURNAL OF A TOUR room, after he has seen it. Let him go cheerfully out, and give place to other spectators. — Johnson. " Yes, sir, if he is sure he is to be well, after he goes out of it. But if he is to grow blind after he goes out of the show- room, and never to see any thing again ; or if he does not know whither he is to go next, a man will not go cheerfully out of a show-room. No wise man will be contented to die, if he thinks he is to go into a state of punishment. Nay, no wise man will be contented to die, if he thinks he is to fall into annihilation : for how- ever unhappy any man's existence may be, he yet would rather have it, than not exist at all. No ; there is no rational principle by which a man can die contented, but a trust in the mercy of God, through the merits of Jesus Christ." — This short sermon, delivered with an earnest tone, in a boat upon the sea, which was perfect- ly calm, on a day appropriated to religious worship, while every one listened with an air of satisfaction, had a most pleasing effect upon my mind. Pursuing the same train of serious reflection, he added, that it seemed certain that happiness could not be found in this life, because so many had tried to find it, in such a variety of ways, and had not found it. We reached the harbour of Portree, in Sky, which is a large and good one. There was lying in it a ves- sel to carry off the emigrants, called the 'JVestor. It made a short settlement of the differences between a chief and his clan : . — A''estor componere lites Intel" Peleiden festinat & inter Atriden, We approached her, and she hoisted her colours,. Dr. Johnson and Mr. M'Queen remained in the boat : Ra- \M- TO THE HEBRIDES. 161 sliy aM 1, and the rest, went on board of her. She was a veiy pretty vessel, and, as we were told, the largest m Clyde. Mr. Harrison, the captain, shewed her to us. The cabin was commodious, and even elegant. There was a little library, finely bound. Portree has its name from King James the Fifth hav- ing landed there in his tour through the Western Isles, Ree in Erse being King, as Re is in Italian ; so it is Port-Royal. There was here a tolerable inn. On our landing, I had the pleasure of finding a letter from liome ; and there were also letters to Dr. Johnson and me from Lord Elibank, which had been sent after us from Edinburgh. — His lordship's letter to me was as follows: " Dear Boswell, " I flew to Edinburgh the moment I heard of Mr. Johnson's arrival ; but so defective was my intelligence ihat I came too late. " It is but justice to believe, that I could never for- give myself, nor deserve to be forgiven by others, if I was to fail in any mark of respect to that very great genius. — I hold him in the highest veneration ; for that very reason I was resolved to take no share in the me- rit, perhaps guilt, of enticing him to iionour this country with a visit. — I could not persuade myself there was any thing in Scotland worthy to have a summer of Samuel Johnson bestowed on it ; but since he has done us that compliment, for heaven's sake inform me of your mo- tions. I will attend them most religiously ; and though I should regret to let Mr. Johnson go a mile out of his way on my account, old as I am, I shall be glad to go five hundred miles to enjoy "a day of his company. ^. Y 162 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Have the charity to send a council-post* with intelli- gence ; the post does not suit us in the country. — At any rate write to me. I will attend you in the north, when I shall know where to find you. " I am, ;, " My dear Boswell, " Your sincerely " Obedient humble servant,^ " August 2lst, 1773. " Elibank." The letter to Dr. Johnson was in these words : *" Dear Sir, " I was to have kissed your hands at Edinburgh, the moment I heard of you ; but you was gone. " I hope my friend Boswell will inform me of your motions. It will be cruel to deprive me an instant of the honour of attending you. As I value you more than any King in Christendom, I will perform that duty with infinitely greater alacrity than any courtier. I can con- tribute but little to your entertainment ; but, my sin- cere esteem for you gives me some title to the oppor- tunity of expressing it. " I dare say you are by this time sensible that things are pretty much the same, as when Buchanan complained of being born solo et seculo mei'udito. Let me hear of you ; and be persuaded that none of your admirers is more sincerely devoted to you, than, " Dear Sir, " Your most obedient, " And most humble servant, " Elibank." * A term iu Scotland for a special messenger, such as was formerly sent with dispatches by the. lords of the co"uncil.- it TO THE HEBRIDES. 16.3 Dr. Johnson, on the folJ owing Tuesday, answered for both of usj thus : "My Lord, " ON the rugged shore of Skie, I had the honour of your lordship's letter, and can with great truth de- clare, that no place is so gloomy but that it would be cheered by such a testimony of regard, from a mind so well qualified to estimate characters, and to deal out ap- probation in its due proportions. If I have more than my share, it is your lordship's fault ; for I have always reverenced your judgement too much, to exalt rnyself in your presence by any false pretensions. " Mr. Boswell and I are at present at the disposal of the winds, and therefore cannot fix the time at which we shall have the honour of seeing your lordship. But we should either of. us think ourselves injured, by the supposition that we would miss your lordship's conver- sation, when we could enjoy it ; for I have often decla- red that I never met you without going away a wiser man. ^' I am, my Lord, " Your lordship's most obedient " And most humble servant, " Skie, Sept. 14, 1773. Sam. Johnson." At Portree, Mr. Donald M'Queen, went to church and officiated in Erse, and then came to dinner. Dr. Johnson and I resolved that we should treat the com- pany ; so I played the landlord, or master of the feast, having previously ordered Joseph to pay the bill. Sir James Macdonald intended to have built a vil- lage here, which v/ould have done great good. A vil- lage is like a heart to a CQuntry. It produces a perpetual • 164 JOURNAL OF A TOUR ^ circulation, and gives the people an opportunity to make profit of many little articles, which would otherwise be in a good measure lost. We had here a dinner, et prater ea nihil. Dr. Johnson did not talk. When we were about to depart, we found that Rasay had been before-hand with us, and that ail was paid : I would fain have contested this matter with him, but seeing him resolved, I declined it. W^e parted with cordial embraces from him and worthy Malcolm. In the even- ing Dr. Johnson and I remounted our horses, accom- panied by Mr. jNI'Queen and Dr. Macleod. It rained veiy hard. We rode what they call six miles, upon Rasay's lands in Sky, to Dr. Macleod's houses -On the road Dr. Johnson appeared to be somewhat out of spirits. When I talked of our meeting Lord Elibank, , he said, " I cannot be with him much. I long to be again in civilized life ; but can staj^ but a short while ;" (he meant to Edinburgh). He said, " let us go to Dun- vegan to-morrow." — "Yes, (said I,) if it is not a,de- luge." — "At any rate," he replied. — This shewed a kind of fretful impatience ; nor was it to be wondered at, considering our disagreeable ride. I feared he would give up Mull and Icolmkill, for he said something of his apprehensions of being detained by bad weather in going to Mull and lona. However I hoped well. We had a dish of tea at Dr. Macleod's, who had a pretty good house, where was his brother, a half pay officer. His lady was a polite, agreeable woman. Dr. Johnson said, he w^as glad to see that he was so well married, for he had an esteem for physicians. The doctor ac- companied us to Kingsburgh, which is called a mile farther ; but the computation of Sky has no connection v/hatever with the%-eal distance. TO THE HEBRIDES. 165 I was highly pleased to see Dr. Johnson safely ar- rived at Kingsburgh, and received by the hospitable Mr. Macdonald, who, with a most respectful attention, supported him into the house. Kingsburgh was com- pletely the figure of a gallant Highlander, — exhibiting *' the graceful mien and manly looks," which our popu- lar Scotch song has justly attributed to that character. He had his Tartan plaid thrown about him, a large blue bonnet with a knot of black ribband like a cockade, a brown short coat of a kind of duffil, a Tartan waistcoat with gold buttons and gold button-holes, a bluish phi- libeg, and Tartan hose. He had jet black liair tied be- hind, and was a large stately man, with a steady sensible countenance. There was a comfortable parlour with a good fire, and a dram went round. By and by supper was served, at which there appeared the lady of the house, the cele- brated Miss Flora Macdonald. She is a little woman, of a genteel appearance, and uncommonly mild and well-bred. To see Dr. Samuel Johnson, the great cham- pion of the English Tories, salute Miss Flora Mac- donald in the isle of Sky, was a striking sight ; for though somewhat congenial in their notions, it was very impro- bable they should meet here. Miss Flora Macdonald (for so I shall call her) told me, she heard upon the main land, as she was returning home about a fortnight before, that Mr. Boswell was coming to Sky, and one Mr. Johnson, a young English buck, with him. He was highly entertained with this fancy. Giving an account of the afternoon which we past at Anock^ he said, *' I, being a huck^ had miss in to make tea."— He was rather quiescent to-night, and went early to bed. I was in a cordial humour, and promoted a cheerful glass. Tl;ie punch was excellent. Hoaest 166 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Mr. M'Queen observed that I was in high glee, " mf governour being gone to bed." Yet in reahty my heart "^ was grieved, when I recollected that Kingsburgh was embarrassed in his affairs, and intended to go to Ameri- ca. However, nothing but what was good was present, and I pleased myself in thinking that so spirited a man xvould be well every where. I slept in the same room with Dr. Johnson. Each had a neat bed, with Tartan curtains, in an upper chamber. Monday^ 13M September. The room where we lay was a celebrated one. Dr. Johnson's bed was the very bed in which the grandson of the unfortunate King James the Second* lay, on one of the nights after the failure of his rash attempt in 1745-6, while he was eluding the pursuit of the emis- saries of government, which had offered thirty thousand pounds as a reward for apprehending him. To see Dr. Samuel Johnson lying in that bed, in the isle of Sky, in the house of Miss Flora Macdonald, struck me with such a group of ideas as it is not easy for words to des- cribe, as they passed through the mind. He smiled and * I do not call him the Prince of Wales, or the Prince, because I am quite satisfi- ed that the right which the House of Stuart had to the throne is extii|guished. I do not call him the Pretender, because it appears to me as an insult to one who is still alive, and, I suppose, thinks very difierently. It may be a parliamentary ex- pression ; but it is not a gentlemanly expression. 1 inau;, and I exult in having it in my power to tell, that the only person in the world who is entided to be offended at this delicacy, " thinks and feels as I do ;" and has liberality of mind and generosity of sentiment enough, to approve of my tenderness for what even has been Blood-Royal. That he is a prince by coia-iesy, cannot be denied ; because Ills mother was the daughter of Sobiesky, king of Poland. I shall, therefore, on that account alcm, distinguish him hv the name of Prince Charles Eckcard. n TO THE HEBRIDES. 167 said, " I have had no ambitious thoughts in it.* — The room was decorated with a great variety of maps and prints. Among others, was Hogarth*s print of Wilkes grinning, with the cap of liberty on a pole by him. That too was a curious circumstance in the scene this morning; such a contrast was Wilkes to the above group. It reminded me of Sir William Chambers's Account of Oriental Gardening, in which we are told all odd, strange, ugly, and even terrible objects, are in- troduced, for the sake of variety : a wild extravagance of taste which is so well ridiculed in the celebrated Epistle to him. The foUowing lines of that poem im- mediately occurred to me ; " Here too, O king of vengeance ! in thy fane, " Tremendous Wilkes shall rattle his gold chain." Upon the table in our room I found in the morning a slip of paper, on which Dr. Johnson had written witB his pencil these words : " Quantum cedat virtutibus aurum."t What he meant by writing them I could not tell. J He had caught cold a day or two ago, and the rain yester- * This, perhaps, was said in allusion to some lines ascribed to Pope, on his lying, at John Duke of Argyle's, at Adderbury, in the same bed in which Wilmotj Earl of Rochester, had slept : " With no poetick ardour fir'd, " I press the bed where Wilmot lay ; " That here he liv'd, or here expir'd, " Begets no nunabers^ grave or gay." f With virtue weigh'd,,what worthless trash is gold ! :j: Since the first edition of this book, an ingenious friend has observed to me, that Dr. Johnson had probably been thinking on the reward which was offered by gpvernment for the apprehension of the grandson of King James II, and that he meant by these words to express his admiration of the Highlanders, whose fidelity and attachment h;id resisted the golden temptation that had been held out to them. 168 JOURNAL OF A TOUR . day having made it worse, he was become very deaf. At breakfast he said, he would have given a good deal, rather than not have lain in that bed. I owned he was the lucky man ; and observed, that without doubt it had been contrived between Mrs. Macdonald and liim. She seemed to acquiesce ; adding, " You know young bucks are always favourites of the ladies." He spoke of Prince Charles being here, and asked Mrs. Macdonald, " Who was with him ? We were told, madam, in Eng- land, there was one Miss Flora Macdonald with him." — She said, " they were very right ;" and perceiving Dr. Johnson's curiosity, though he had delicacy enough not to question her, very obligingly entertained him with a recital of the particulars which she herself knew of that escape, which does so much honour to the humanity, fidelity, and generosity, of the Highlanders. Dr. John- son listened to her with placid attention, and said, '' All this should be written down." From what she told us, and from what I was told by others personally concerned, and from a paper of infor- mation which Rasay was so good as to send me, at my desire, I have compiled the following abstract, which, as it contains some curious anecdotes, will, I imagine not be uninteresting to my readers, and even, perhaps, be of some use to future historians. Prince Charles Edward, after the battle of Culloden, was conveyed to what is called the Lo7ig Island, where he lay for some time concealed. But intelligence hav- ing been obtained where he was, and a number of troops having come in quest of him, it became absolutely necessary for him to quit that country without delay. Miss Flora Macdonald, then a young lady, animated by TO THE HEBRIDES. 169 what she thought the sacred prmciple of loyalty, offered, with the magnanimity of a Heroine, to accompany him in an open boat to Sky, though the coast they were to quit was guarded by ships. He dressed himself in women's clothes, and passed as her supposed maid, by the name of Betty Bourke, an Irish girl. They got off undiscovered, though several shots were fired to bring them to, and landed at Mugstot, the seat of Sir Alexan- der Macdonald. Sir Alexander was then at Fort Au- gustus, with the Duke of Cumberland ; but his lady was at home. Prince Charles took his post upon a hill near the house. Flora Macdonald waited on Lady Margaret, and acquainted her of the enterprize in which she was engaged. Her ladyship, whose active benevo- lence was ever seconded by superior talents, shewed a perfect presence of mind, and readiness of invention, and at once settled that Prince Charles should be con- ducted to old Rasay, who was himself concealed with some select friends. The plan was instantly communi- cated to Kingsburgh, who was dispatched to the hill to inform the Wanderer, and carry him refreshments. When Kingsburgh approached, he started up, and ad- vanced, holding a large knotted stick, and in appearance ready to knock him down, till he said, " I am Mac- donald of Kingsburgh, come to serve your highness." The Wanderer answered, " It is well," and was satisfied with the plan. Flora Macdonald dined with Lady Margaret, at whose table there sat an officer of the army, stationed here with a party of soldiei's, to watch for Prince Charles in case of his flying to the isle of Sky. She afterwards often laughed in good humour with this gentleman, an her having so well deceived him.. 170 JOURNAL OF A TOUR After dinner, Flora Macdonald on horseback, and her supposed maid and Kingsburgh, with a servant car- rjdng some linen, all on foot, proceeded towards that gentleman's house. Upon the road was a small rivulet which they were obhged to cross. The Wanderer, for- getting his assumed sex, that his clothes might not be wet, held them up a great deal too high. Kingsburgh mentioned this to him, observing, it might make a dis- covery. He said, he would be more careful for the fu- ture. He was as good as his word ; for the next brook they crossed, he did not hold up his clothes at all, but let them float upon the water. He was very aukward in his female dress. His size was so large, and his strides so great, that some women whom they met re- ported that they had seen a very big woman, who look- ed like a man in woman's clothes, and that perhaps it was (as they expressed themselves) the Prince, after whom so much search was making. At Kingsburgh he met with a most cordial recep- tion ; seemed gay at supper, and after it indulged him- self in a cheerful glass with his worthy host. As he had not had his clothes off for a long time, the comfort of a good bed was highly relished by him, and he slept sound- ly till next day at one o'clock. The mistress of Corrichatachin told me, that in the forenoon she went into her father's room, who was also in bed, and suggested to him her apprehensions that a party of the military might come up, and that his guest and he had better not remain here too long. Her fa- ther said, " Let the poor man repose himself after his fatigues ; and as for me, 1 care not, though they take oit this old grey head ten or eleven j^ears sooner than I should die in the course of nature." He then wrapped himself in the bed-clothes, and again fell fast asleep. TO THE HEBRIDES. 171 On the afternoon of that day, the Wanderer, still in the same dress, set out for Portree, with Flora Mac- donald and a man servant. His shoes being very bad, Kingsburgh provided him with a new pair, and taking up the old ones, said, " I will faithfully keep them till you are safely settled at St. James's. I will then intro- duce myself, by shaking them at you, to put you in mind of your night's entertainment and protection under my roof." — He smiled, and said, "Be as good as your word !" — Kingsburgh kept the shoes as long as he lived. After his death, a zealous Jacobite gentleman gave twenty guineas for them. Old Mrs. Macdonald, after her guest had left the house, took the sheets in which he had lain, folded them carefully, and charged her daughter that they should be kept unwashed, and that, when she died, her body should be wrapped in them as a winding sheet. Her will was religiously observed. Upon the road to Portree, Prince Charles changed his dress, and put dn man's clothes again ; a tartan short coat and waistcoat, with philibeg and short hose, a plaid and a wig and bonnet. Mr. Donald M'Donald, called Donald Roy, had been sent express to the present Rasay, then the young laird, who was at that time at his sister's house, about three miles from Portree, attending his brother. Dr. Macleod, who was recovering of a wound he had re- ceived at the battle of Culloden. Mr. M'Donald com- municated to young Rasay the plan of conveying the Wanderer to where old Rasay was ; but was told that old Rasay had fied to Knoidart, a part of Glengary's estate. There was then a dilemma what should be done. Donald Roy proposed that he should conduct the Wan- derer to the main land ; but young Rasay thought it too 17^ JOURNAL OF A TOUR dangerous at that time, and said it would be better to conceal him in the island of Rasay, till old Rasay could be informed where he was, and give his advice what was best. But the difficulty was, how to get him to Rasay. They could not trust a Portree crew, and all the Rasay boats had been destroyed, or carried off by the military, except two belonging to Malcolm M'Leod, which he had concealed somewhere. Dr. Macleod being informed of this difficulty, said he would risk his life once more for Prince Charles ; and it having occurred, that there was a little boat upon a fresh-water lake in the neighbourhood, young Rasay and Dr. Macleod, with the help of some women, brought it to the sea, by extraordinary exertion, across a High- land mile of land, one half of which was bog, and the other a steep precipice. These gallant brothers, with the assistance of one little boy, rowed the small boat to Rasay, where they were to endeavour to find Captain M'Leod, as Malcolm was then called, and get one of his good boats, with which they might return to Portree, and receive the Wanderer ; or, in case of not finding him, they were to make the small boat serve, though the danger was considerable. Fortunately, on their first landing, they found their cousin Malcolm, who, with the utmost alacrity, got ready one of his boats, with two strong men, John M'Kenzie, and Donald M'Friar. Malcolm, being the oldest man, and most cautious, said, that as young Ra- say had not hitherto appeared in the unfortunate busi- ness, he ought not to run any risk ; but that Dr. Ma- cleod and himself, who were already publickly engaged, should go on this expedition. Young Rasay answered^, with an oath, that he would go, at the risk of his life TO THE HEBRIDES. 17S and fortune. — "In God's name then (said Malcolm) let us proceed." The two boatmen, however, now stopped short, till they should be informed of their des- tination ; and M'Kenzie declared he would not move an oar till he knew where they were going. Upon which they were both sworn to secrecy ; and the busi- ness being imparted to them, they were eager to put off to sea without loss of time. The boat soon landed about half a mile from the inn at Portree. All this was negociated before the Wanderer got forward to Portree. Malcolm M'Leod, and M'Friar, were dispatched to look for him. In a short time he appeared, and went into the public house. Here Donald Roy, whom he had seen at Mugstot, received him, and informed him of what hrd been concerted. He wanted silver for a guinea, but the landlord had only thirteen shillings. He was going to accept of this for his guinea; but Donald Roy very judiciously observed, that it would discover him to be some great man ; so he desisted. He slipped out of the house, leaving his fair protectress, whom he never again saw ; and Malcolm Macleod was presented to him by Donald Roy, as a captain in his ar- my. Young Rasay and Dr. Macleod had waited, in impatient anxiety, in the boat. When he came, their names were announced to him. He would not permit the usual ceremonies of respect, but saluted them as his equals. Donald Roy staid in Sky, to be in readiness to get intelligence, and give an alarm in case the troops should discover the retreat to Rasay ; and Prince Charles was then conveyed in a boat to that island in the night. He slept a little upon the passage, and they landed about day-break. There was some difficulty in accommo- dating him with a lodging, as almost all the houses in. 174 JOURNAL OF A TOUR the island had been burnt by the soldiery. They repair- ed to a little hut, which some shepherds had lately built, and having prepared it as well as they could, and made a bed of heath for the stranger, they kindled a fire, and partook of some provisions which had been sent with him from Kingsburgh. It was observed that he would not taste wheat-bread, or brandy, while oat-bread and whisky lasted ; "for these, said he, are my own coun- try bread and drink."— -This was very engaging to the Highlanders. Young Rasay being the only person of the com- pany that durst appear with safety, he went in quest of something fresh for them to eat ; but though he was amidst his own cows, sheep, and goats, he could not venture to take any of them for fear of a discovery, but was obliged to supply himself by stealth. He therefore caught a kid, and brought it to the hut in his plaid, and it was killed and drest, and furnished them a meal which they relished much. The distressed Wanderer, whose health was now a good deal impaired by hunger, fatigue, and watching, slept a long time, but seemed to be fre- quently disturbed. Malcolm told me he would start from broken slumbers, and speak to himself in different lan- guages, French, Italian, and English. I must however acknowledge, that it is highly probable that my worthy friend Malcolm did not know precisely the difference between French and Italian. One of his expressions in English was, " O God ! poor Scotland !" While they were in the hut, M'Kenzie and M'Friar, the two boatmen, were placed as sentinels upon different eminences ; and one day an incident happened, which must not be omitted. There was a man wandering about the island, selling tobacco. Nobody knew him, and he was suspected to be a spy. M'Kenzie came fb THE HEBRIDES. 175 running to the hut, and told that this suspected person was approaching. Upon which the three gentlemen, young Rasay, Dr. Macleod, and Malcolm, held a coun- cil of war upon him, and were unanimously of opinion that he should instantly be put to death. Prince Charles, at once assuming a grave and even severe countenance, said, ** God forbid that we should take away a man's life, who may be innocent, while we can preserve our own." The gentlemen however persisted in their reso- lution, while he as strenuously continued to take the merciful side. John M'Kenzie, who sat watching at the door of the hut, and overheard the debate, said in Erse, " Well, well ; he must be shot. You are the l^ing, but we are the parliament, and will do what we choose." Prince Charles, seeing the gentlemen smile, asked what the man had said, and being told it in English, he observed that he was a clever fellow, and, notwithstanding the perilous situation in which he was, laughed loud and heartily. Luckily the unknown person did not perceive that there were people in the hut, at least did not come to it, but walked on past it, unknowing of his risk. It was afterwards found out that he was one of the Highland army, who was him- self in danger. Had he come to them, they were re- solved to dispatch him ; for, as Malcolm said, to me, *' We could not keep him with us, and we durst not let him go. In such a situation, I would have shot my brother, if I had not been sure of him," — John M'Ken- zie was. at Rasay 's house, when we were there.* About eighteen years before, he hurt one of his legs when dancing, and being obliged to have it cut off, he now • This old Scottish onem.bcr of parliament, I am informed, is still living '4^1^ (1785). 176 JOURNAL OF A TOUR was going about with a wooden leg. The story of his being a member of parliament is not yet forgotten. I took him out a little way from the house, gave him a shilling to drink Rasay's health, and led him into a de- tail of the particulars which I have just related. — With less foundation, some writers have traced the idea of a parliament, and of the British constitution, in rude and early times. I was curious to know if he had really heard, or understood, any thing of that subject, which, had he been a greater man, would probably have been eagerly maintained. " Why, John, (said I,) did you think the king should be controuled by a parliament?" — He answered, " I thought, sir, there were many voices against one." The conversation then turning on the times, the Wanderer said, that, to be sure, the life he had led of late was a very hard one ; but he would rather live in the way he now did, for ten years, than fail into the hands of his enemies. The gentlemen asked him, what he thought his enemies would do with him, should he have the misfortune to fall into their hands. He said, he did not believe they would dare to take his life pub- lickly, but dreaded being privately destroyed by poison or assassination. — He was very particular in his inquiries about the wound which Dr. Macleod had received at the battle of Culloden, from a ball, which entered at one shoulder, and went cross to the other. The doctor hap- pened still to have on the coat which he wore on that oc- casion. He mentioned, that he himself had his horse shot under him at Culloden ; that the ball hit the horse about two inches from his knee, and made him so unruly that he was obliged to change him for ano- ther. He threw out some reflections on the con- duct of the disastrous affair at Culloden, saying how- TO THE HEBRIDES. ^ 177 ever, that perhaps it was rash in him to do so. — I am now convinced that his suspicions were groundless ; for I have had a good deal of conversation upon the subject with my very worthy and ingenious friend, Mr. Andrew Lumisden, who was under secretary to Prince Charles, and afterwards principal secretary to his father at Rome, who he assured me, was perfectly satisfied both of the abi- lities and honorbf the generals who commanded the High- land army on that occasion. Mr. Lumisden has written an account of the three battles in 1745-6, at once accu- rate and classical. — Talking of the different Highland corps, the gentlemen who were present wished to have his opinion which were the best soldiers. He said, he did not like comparisons among those corps : they were all best. He told his conductors, he did not think it advisable to remain long in any one place ; and that he expected a French ship to come for him to Lochbroom, among the Mackenzies. It then was proposed to carry him in one of Malcolm's boats to Lochbroom, though the dis- tance was fifteen leagues coastwise. But he thought this would be too dangerous, and desired that at any rate they might first endeavour to obtain intelligence. Upon which young Rasay wrote to his friend, Mr. M'Kenzie of Applecross, but received an answer, that there was no appearance of any French ship. It was therefore resolved that they should return to Sky, which they did, and landed in Strath, where they reposed in a cow-house belonging to Mr. Nicholson of Scorbreck. The sea was very rough, and the boat took in a good deal of water.' The Wanderer asked if there was danger, as he was not used to such a vessel. Upon being told there was not, he sung an Erse song with A a 178 JOURNAL OF A TOUR much vivacity. He had by this time acquired a good deal of the Erse language. Young Rasay was now dispatched to where Donald Roy was, that they might get all the intelligence they could; and the Wanderer, with much earnestness, charged Dr. Macleod to have a boat ready, at a certain place about seven miles off, as he said he intended it should carry him upon a matter of great consequence ; and gave the doctor a case, containing a silver spoon, knife, and fork, saying, " keep you that till I see you," which the doctor understood to be two days from that time. But all these orders were only blinds ; for he had another plan in his head, but wisely thought it safest to trust his secrets to no more persons than was abso- lutely necessary. Having then desired Malcolm to walk with him a little way from the house, he soon opened his mind, saying, "I deliver myself to you. Conduct me to the Laird of M'Kinnon's country." Malcolm objected that it was very dangerous, as so many parties of soldiers were in motion. He answered, " There is nothing now to be done without danger." — He then said, that Malcolm must be the master, and he the servant; so he took the bag, in which his linen was put up, and car- ried it on his shoulder ; and observing that his waist- coat, which was of scarlet tartan, with a gold twist but- ton, was finer tliat Malcolm's, which was of a plain or- dinary tartan, he put on Malcolm's waistcoat, and gave him his ; remarking at the same time, that it did not look well that the servant should be better dressed than the master. Malcolm, though an excellent walker, found himself excelled by Prince Charles, who told him, he should not much mind die parties that were looking for him, were he once but a musket- shot from them ; but that he TO THE HEBRIDES. ITS was somewhat afraid of- the Highlanders who were against him. He was well used to walking in Italy in pursuit of game ; and he was even now so keen a sports- man, that, having observed some partridges, he was going to take a shot ; but Malcolm cautioned him against it, observing that the firing might be heard by the tenders who were hovering upon the coast. As they proceeded through the mountains, taking many a circuit to avoid any houses, Malcolm to try his resolution, asked him what they should do, should they fall in with a party of soldiers : he answered, " Fight to be sure !" — Having asked Malcolm if he should be known in his present dress, and Malcolm having replied he would, he said, " Then I'll blacken my face with powder." — " That, said Malcolm, would discover you at once." — " Then, said he, I must be put in the greatest deshabille possible." So he pulled off lis wig, tied a handkerchief round his head, and put his night-cap over ity tore the ruffles from his shirt, took the buckles out of his shoes, and made Malcolm fasten them with strings ; but still Malcolm thought he would be known. " I have so odd a face, (said he,) that no man ever saw me but he would know me again." v*«,k He seemed unwilling to give credit to the horrid narrative of men being massacred in cold blood, after victory had declared for the army commanded by the Duke of Cumberland. He could not allow himself to think that a general could be so barbarous. When they came within two miles of M'Kinnon's house, Malcolm asked if he chose to see the laird. "No, (said he,) by no means. I know M'Kinnon to be as good and as honest a man as any in the world, but he is not fit for my purpose at present. You must conduct me to some other house ; but let it be a gentleman's 180 JOURNAL OF A TOUR house." — —Malcolm then determined that they should go to the house of his brother-in-law, Mr. John M'Kin- non, and from thence be conveyed to the main land of Scotland, and claim the assistance of Macdonald of Scothouse. The Wanderer at first objected to this, be- cause Scothouse was cousin to a person of whom he had suspicions. But he acquiesced in Malcolm's opinion. When they were near Mr. John M'Kinnon's house, they met a man of the name of Ross, who had -been a private soldier in the Highland army. He fixed his eyes steadily on the Wanderer in his disguise, and hav- ing at once recognized him, he clapped his hands, and exclaimed, " Alas ! is this the case ?" Finding that there was now a discovery, Malcolm asked, " What's to be done ?" " Swear him to secrecy," answered Prince Charles. Upon which Malcolm drew his dirk, and on the naked blade made him take a solemn oath, that he would say nothing of his having seen the Wan- derer, till his escape should be made publick. Malcolm's sister, whose house they reached pretty early in the morning, asked him who the person was that was along with him. He said, it was one Lewis Caw, from Crieff, who being a fugitive like himself for the same reason, he had engaged him as his servant, but that he had fallen sick. " Poor man ! (said she,) I pity him. At the same time my heart warms to a man of his appearance." — Her husband was gone a little way from home ; but was expected every minute to return. She set down to her brother a plentiful Highland break- fast. Prince Charles acted the servant very well, sit- ting at a respectful distance, with his bonnet off. Mal- colm then said to him, " Mr. Caw, you have as much need of this as I have ; there is enough for us both ; 'ftJ THE HEBRIDES. ^ 18t you had better draw nearer and share with me." — Upon which he rose, made a profound bow, sat down at table with his supposed master, and eat very heartily. After this there came in an old woman, who, after the mode of ancient hospitality, brought warm water, and washed Malcolm's feet. He desired her to wash the feet of the poor man who attended him. She at first seemed averse to this, from pride, as thinking him beneath her, and in the periphrastick language of the Highlanders and the Irish, said warmly, " Though I wash your father's son's feet, why should I wash his father's son's feet ?" — She was however persuaded to do it. They then went to bed, and slept for some time ; and when Malcolm awaked, he was told that Mr. John M'Kinnon, his brother-in-law, was in sight. He sprang out to talk to him before he should see Prince Charles. After saluting- him, Malcolm, pointing to the sea, said, " What, John, if the prince should be prisoner on board one of those tenders ?" " God forbid !" replied John. — " What if we had him here ?" said Malcolm. — " I wish we had, answered John ; we should take care of him." — " Well, John, said Malcolm, he is in your houses" — John, in a transport of joy, wanted to run di- rectly in, and pay his obeisance ; butMaicolm stopped him, saying, "Now is your time to behave well, and do nothing that can discover him". — John composed himself, and having sent away all his servants upon dif- ferent errands, he was introduced into the presence of his guest, and was then desired to go and get ready a boat lying near his house, which, though but a small leaky one, they resolved to take, rather than go to the Laird of M'Kinnon. John M'Kinnon however thought otherwise ; and upon his return told them, that his Chief and Lady M'Kinnon were coming in the laird's ^ 182 JOURNAL OF A TOUR boat. Prince Charles said to his trusty Malcolm, " I am sorry for this, but must make the best of it." — M'Kinnon then walked up from the shore, and did ho- mage to the Wanderer. His lady waited in a cave, to which they all repaired, and were entertained with cold meat and wine. — Mr. Malcolm M'Leod being now su- perseded by the Laird of M'Kinnon, desired leave to return, which was granted him, and Prince Charles wrote a short note, which he subscribed James Thomp- son^ informing his friends that he had got away from Sky, and thanking them for their kindness ; and he de- sired this might be speedily conveyed to young Rasay and Dr. Macleod, that they might not wait longer in ex- pectation of seeing him again. He bade a cordial adieu to Malcolm, and insisted on his accepting of a silver stock-buckle, and ten guineas from his purse, though, as Malcolm told me, it did not appear tocontain above forty. Malcolm at first begged to be excused, saying, that he had a few guineas at his service ; but Prince Charles answered, "You will have need of money. I shall get enough when I come upon the main land." The Laird of M'Kinnon then conveyed him to the opposite coast of Knoidart. Old Rasay, to whom in- telligence had been sent, was crossing at the same time to Sky ; but as they did not know of each other, and each had apprehensions, the two boats kept aloof. These are the particulars which I have collected concerning the extraordinary concealment and escapes of Prince Charles, in the Hebrides. He was often in imminent danger. The troops traced him from the Long Island, across Sky, to Portree, but there lost him. Here I stop, — having received no farther aiithentick information of his fatigues and perils before he escaped * . ¥ TO THE HEBRIDES. ^j., 183 to France. — Kings and subjects may both take a lesson of moderation from the melancholy fate of the House of Stuart ; that Kings may not suffer degradation and exile, and subjects may not be harfassed by the evils of a dis- puted succession. V Let me close the scene on that unfortunate House with the elegant and pathetick reflections Qi Voltaire^ m his Histoire Generale. — " Que leshommes prives (says "that brilliant writer, speaking of Prince Charles) qui " se croyent malheureux jettent les yeux sur ce prince et " ses ancetres." In another place he thus sums up the sad story of the family in general : — " II n'y a aucun exemple dans I'his- " toire d'une maison si longtems infortunee. Le pre- " mier des Rois d'Ecosse, qui eut le nom de Jacques^ " apres avoir ete dix-huit ans prisonnier en Angleterre, " mourut assassin6, avec sa femme, par la main de ses " sujets. Jacques II. son fils, fut tue a vingt-neuf an$ " en combattant contre les Anglois. Jacques III. mis " un prison par son peuple, fut tue ensuite par les re- " voltes, danc une battaille. Jacques IV. perit dans un "combat qui'l perdit. Marie Stuart^ sa petite fille, " chassee, de son trone, fugitive en Angleterre, ayant '* langui dix-huit ans en prison, se vit condamnee a "mort par des juges Anglais, et eut la tete tranchee. " Charles I. petit fils de Marie, Roi d'Ecosse et d'An- " gleterre, vendu par les Ecossois, et juge a mort par " les Anglais, mourut sur un echaffaut dans la place " publique. Jacques, son fils, septieme du nom, et " deuxieme en Angleterre, fut chass6 de ses trois roy- " aumes ; et pour comble de malheur on contesta a son " fils sa naissance : le fils ne tenta de remonter sur le " trone de ces peres, que pour faire perir ses amis par ^* des bourreaux ; et nous avons vu le Prince Charles 184 JOURNAL OF A TOUR " Edouard, reunuissant en vain les vertus de ses peres, et "le courage du Roi Jean Sobieski, son ayeul maternel, " executer les exploits et essuyer les malheurs les plus " incroyables. Si quelque' chose justifie ceux qui croy- " ent une fatalit6 a laquelle rien ne peut se sousiraire, " c'est cette suite continuelle de malheurs qui a perse- " cut6 la maison de Stuart, pendant plus de trois-cent *' annees." The gallant Malcolm was apprehended in about ten days after they separated put aboard a ship, and carried prisoner to London. He said, the prisoners in general were very ill treated in their passage ; but there were soldiers on board who lived well, and sometimes invited him to share with them : that he had the good fortune not to be thrown into jail, but was confined in the house of a messenger, of the name of Dick. To his aston- ishment, only one witness could be found against him, though he had been so openly engaged ; and therefore, for want of sufficient evidence, he was set at liberty. He added, that he thought himself in such danger, that he would gladly have compounded for banishment. Yet, he said, " he should never be so ready for death as he then was." — There is philosophical truth in this. A man will meet death much more firmly at one time than another. The enthusiasm even of a mistaken principle warms the mind, and sets it above the fear of death ; which in our cooler moments, if we really think of it, cannot but be terrible, or at least very awful. Miss Flora Macdonald being then also in London, under the protection of Lady Primrose, that lady provi- ded a post-chaise to convey her to Scotland, and desired she might choose any ftiend she pleased to accompany her. She chose Malcolm. " So (said he, with a tri- TO THE HEBRIDES. 1^5 iimphant air) I went to London to be hanged, and re- turned in a post-chaise with Miss Flora Macdonald." Mr. Macleod of Muiravenside, whom we saw at Ra- say assured us that Prince Charles was in London in 1759, and that there was then a plan in agitation for res- toring his family. Dr. Johnson could scarcely credit this story, and said, " There could be no probable plan at that time. Such an attempt could not have succeed- ed, unless the King of Prussia had stopped the army in Germany ; for both the army and the fleet would, even without orders, have fought for the King, to whom they had engaged themselves." Having related so many particulars concerning the grandson of the unfortunate King James the Second ; having given due praise to fidelity and generous attach- ment, which, however erroneous the judgment may be, are honourable for the heart ; I must do the Highland- ers the justice to attest, that I found every where amongst them a high opinion of the virtues of the King now upon the throne, and an honest disposition to be faithful subjects to his majesty, whose family has pos- sessed the sovereignty of this country so long, that a change, even for the abdicated family, would now hurt the best feelings of all his subjects. The abstract point of right would involve us in a discussion of remote and perplexed questions ; and after all, we should have no clear principle of decision. That establishment, which, from political necessity, took place in 1688, by a breach in the succession of our kings, and which, whatever benefits may have accrued from it, certainly gave a shock to our monarchy,— the able and constitutional Blackstone, wisely rests on the solid foot-, ing of authority. — " Our ancestors having most indis- putably a competent jurisdiction to decide this great B b 186 JOURNAL OF A TOUR and important question, and having, in fact, decided it, it is now become our duty, at this distance of time, to acquiesce in their determination."* Mr. Paley, the present Archdeacon of Carlisle, in his Principles of Moral and Political Philosophy ^ having with much clearness of argument, shewn the duty of submission to civil government to be founded neither on an indefeasible jus divinum^ nor on compact, but on expediency, lays down this rational position : — " Irregu- larity in the first foundation of a state, or subsequent violence, fraud, or injustice, in getting possession of the supreme power, are not sufficient reasons for resistance, after the government is once peaceably settled. No subject of the British empire conceives himself engaged to vindicate the justice of the Norman claim or con- quest, or apprehends that his duty in any manner de- pends upon that controversy. So likewise, if the house of Lancaster, or even the posterity of Cromwell, had been at this day seated upon the throne of England, we should have been as little concerned to inquire how the founder of the family came there."! * Commentaries on the Laws of Engl9.nd, Book I. chap. 3. •j- B. VI. chap. 3. Since I have quoted Mr. Archdeacon Paley upon one sub- ject, I cannot but transcribe, from his excellent work, a distinguished passage in support of the Christian Revelation — After shewing, in decent but strong terms, the unfairness of the indirect attempts of modern infidels to unsettle and peqilex religious principles, and particularly the irony, banter, and sneer, of one whom he politely calls " an eloquent historian," the archdeacon thus expresses himself : " Sei-iousness is not constraint of thought ; nor levity, freedoin. Every mind Vvhich wishes the advancement of truth and knowledge, in the most important of all human researches, must abhor this licentiousness, as violating no less the laws of reasoning than the rights of decency. There is but one description of men to whose principles it ought to be tolerable. I mean that class of reasoners who can see little in Christianity, even supposing it to be true. To such adver- saries we address this reflection. — Had Jesus Christ delivered no other declara- tion than the following, « The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth, — they that have done well untO' TO THE HEBRIDES. 187 In conformity with this doctrine, I myself, though fully persuaded that the House of Stuart had originally no right to the crown of Scotland; for that BalioU and not Bruce, was the lawful heir ; should yet have thought it very culpable to have rebelled, on that account, against Charles the First, or even a prince of that house much nearer the time, in order to assert the claim of the posterity of Baliol. However convinced I am of the justice of that prin- ciple, which holds allegiance and protection to be reci- procal, I do however acknowledge, that I am not satis- fied with the cold sentiment which would confine the exertions of the subject within the strict line of duty. I would have every breast animated with the fervour of loyalty ; with that generous attachment which delights in doing somewhat more than is required, and makes " service perfect freedom." And, therefore, as our most gracious Sovereign, on his accession to the throne, gloried in being bar?! a Briton ; so, in my more private sphere. Ego me nunc denique natum, gratulor. I am happy that a disputed succession no longer distracts our minds ; and that a monarchy, established by law, is now so sanctioned by time, that we can fully indulge those the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of dam* nation,' he had pronounced a message of inestimable importance, and well wor- thy of that splendid apparatus of prophecy and miracles with which his mission was introduced and attested : — a message in which the wisest of mankind would rejoice to find an answer to their doubts, and rest to their inquiries. It is idle to say that a future state had been discovered already. — It had been discovered as the Copernican System was; — it was one guess amongst many. He alone dis- covers who pro'ces ; and no man can prove this point but the teacher who testifies by miracles that his doctrine comes from God." — Book V. chap. 9 If infidelity be disengenuously dispersed in every shape that is likely to allure, surprise, or beguile the imagination, — in a fable, a tale, a novel, a poem, — in books of travels, of philosophy, of natural history, — as Mr. Paley has well observed, — I hope it is fair in me thus to iTieet such poison with an unexpected antidotCv which I cannot doubt will be found powerful. 188 JOURNAL OF A TOUtl feelings of loyalty which I am ambitious to excite. They are feelings which have ever actuated the inhabitants of the Highlands and the Hebrides. The plant of loyalty is there in full vigour, and the Brunswick graft now flourishes like a native shoot. To that spirited race of people I may with propriety apply the elegant lines of a modern poet, on the " facile temper of the beauteous sex :" " Like birds new-caught, who flutter for a time, " And struggle wiili captivity in vain ; ^' But by-and-by they rest, they smooth their plumes, "And to neiv rnastcra sing their former notes."* Surely such notes are much better than the queru- lous growlings of suspicious Whigs and discontented Republicans. Kingsburgh conducted us in his boat, across one of the lochs, as they call them, or arms of the sea, which flow in upon all the coasts of Sky, — to a mile beyond a place called Grishmish. Our horses had been sent round by land to meet us. By this sail we saved eight miles of bad riding. Dr. Johnson said, " When we take into the computation what we have saved, and what we have gained, by this agreeable sail, it is a great deal." He observed, "it is very disagreeable riding in Sk}'-. The way is so narrow, one only at a time can travel, so it is quite unsocial ; and you cannot indulge in meditation by yourself, because you must be always attending to the steps which your horse takes." — This w^as a just and clear description of its inconveniences. * Agis, a tragedy, by John Home. TO THE HEBRIDES- 189 The topick of emigration being again introduced, Dr. Johnson said, that " a rapacious Chief would make a wilderness of his estate." Mr. Donald M'Queen told us, that the oppression, which then made so much noise, was owing to landlords listening to bad advice in the letting of their lands ; that interested and design- ing people flattered them with golden dreams of much higher rents than could reasonably be paid ; and that some of the gentlemen tacksmen, or upper tenants, were themselves in part the occasion of the mischief, by over- rating the farms of others. That many of the tacksmen, rather than comply with exorbitant demands, had gone off to America, and impoverished the country, by draining it of its wealth ; and that their places were filled by a number of poor people, who had lived under them, properly speaking as servants, paid by a certain proportion of the produce of the lands, though called sub-tenants. I observed, that if the men of substance were once banished from a Highland estate, it might probably be greatly reduced in its value ; for one bad year might ruin a set of poor tenants, and men of any property would not settle in such a country, unless from the temptation of getting land extremely cheap ; for an inhabitant of any good county in Britain had better go to America than to the Highlands or the Hebrides. Here therefore was a consideration that ought to induce a Chief to act a more liberal part, from a mere motive of interest, independent of the lofty and honourable principle of keeping a clan together, to be in readiness to serve his king. I added, that I could not help think- ing a little arbitrary power in the sovereign to control the bad policy and greediness of the Chiefs, might sometimes be of service. In France a chief would not be permitted to force a number of the king's subjects 190 JOURNAL OF A TOUR out of the country. — Dr. Johnson concurred with me, observing, that *' were an oppressive chieftain a subject of the French King, he would probably be admonished by a letter,^'' During our sail, Dr. Johnson asked about the use of the dirk, with which he imagined the Highlanders cut their meat. He was told they had a knife and fork be- sides, to eat with. He asked, how did the women do? and was answered, some of them had a knife and fork too: but in general the men, when they had cut their meat, handed their knives and forks to the women, and they themselves eat with their fingers. The old tutor of Macdonald always eat fish with his fingers, alledging that a knife and fork gave it a bad taste. I took the liberty to observe to Dr. Johnson, that he did so. " Yes, said he ; but it is, because I am short-sighted, and afraid of bones, for which reason I am not fond of eat- ing many kinds of fish, because I must use my fingers." Dr. M'Pherson's Dissertations on Scottish Antiqui- ties, which we had looked at when at Corrichatachin, being mentioned, he remarked, that " you might read half an hour,- and ask yourself what 3^ou had been read- ing : there were so many words to so little matter, that there was no getting through the book." As soon as we reached the shore, we took leave of Kingsburgh, and mounted our horses. We passed through a wild moor, in many places so soft that we were obliged to walk, which was very fatiguing to Dr. Johnson. Once he had advanced on horseback to a very bad step. There was a steep declivity on his left, to which he was so near, that there was not room for him to dismount in the usual way. He tried to alight on the other side, as if he had been a young buck indeed, but in the attempt he fell at his length upon the ground ; TO THE HEBRIDES. 191 from which, however, he got up immediately without being hurt. During this dreary ride, we were some- times relieved by a view of branches of the sea, that universal medium of connection amongst mankind. A guide, who had been sent with us, from Kingsburgh, explored the way (much in the same manner as, I sup- pose, is pursued in the wilds of America,) by observ- ing certain marks known only to the inhabitants. We arrived at Dunvegan late in the afternoon. The great size of the castle, which is partly old and partly new, and is built upon a rock close to the sea, while the land around it presents notliing but wild, moorish, hilly and craggy appearances, gave a rude magnificence to the scene. . Having dismounted, we ascended a flight of steps which was made by the late Macleod, for the accommodation of persons coming to him by land, there formerly being, for security, no other access to the castle but from the sea : so that visitors who came by the land were under the necessity of getting into a boat, and sailed round to the only place where it could be approached. We were introduced into a stately dining-room, and received by Lady Macleod, mother of the laird, who, with his friend Talisker, having been detained on the road, did not arrive till some time after us. We found the lady of the house a very polite and sensible woman, who had lived for some time in Lon- don, and had there been in Dr. Johnson's company. After we had dined, we repaired to the drawing-room, where some of the young ladies of the family, with their mother, were at tea. This room had formerly been the bed-chamber of Sir Roderick Macleod, one of the old Lairds ; and he chose it, because, behind it, there was a considerable cascade, the sound of which 192 JOURNAL OF A TOUR disposed him to sleep. Above his bed was this inscrip- tion: " Sir Rorie M'Leod of Dunvegan, Knight. God send good rest !" — Rorie is the contraction of Roderick. He was called Rorie More, that is, great Rorie, not from his size, but from his spirit. — Our entertainment here was in so elegant a style, and reminded my fellow-tra- veller so much of England, that he became quite joyous. He laughed, and said, " Boswell, we caijie in at the wrong end of this island." — " Sir, (said I,) it was best to keep this for the last." — He answered, " I would have it both first and last." Tuesday, I4th September. Dr. Johnson said in the morning, " Is not this a fine lady ?" — There was not a word now of his "impatience to be in civilized life;" — though indeed I should beg pardon, — he found it here. We had slept well, and lain long. After breakfast we surveyed the castle, and the garden. — Mr. Bethune, the parish minister, — Magnus M'Leod, of Claggan, brother to Talisker, and M'Leod of Bay, two substantial gentlemen of the clan, dined with us. We had admirable venison, gene- rous wine ; in a word, all that a good table has. This was really the hall of a chief. Lady M'Leod had been much obliged to my father, who had settled by arbitra- tion a variety of perplexed claims between her and her relation, the Laird of Brodie, which she now repaid by particular attention to me. — M'Leod started the sub- ject of making women do penance in the church for for- nication.- — Johnson. "It is right, sir. Infamy is attached to the crime, by universal opinion, as soon as it is known. I would not be the man who would discover it, if I alone knew it, for a woman may reform , nor would I com- TO THE HEBRIDES. 193 mend a parson who divulges a woman's first oiFence; but being once divulged, it ought to be infamous. Consider, of what importance to society the chastity of women is. Upon that all the property in the world de- pends. We hang a thief for stealing a sheep ; but the unchastity of a woman transfers sheep, and farm and all, from the right owner. I have much more reverence for a common prostitute than for a woman who conceals her guilt. The prostitute is known. She cannot deceive : she cannot bring a strumpet into the arms of an honest man, without his knowledge." — Boswell. " There is, however, a great difference between the li- centiousness of a single woman, and that of a married woman." — Johnson. " Yes, sir ; there is great differ- ence between stealing a shilling, and stealing a thou- sand pounds ; between simply taking a man's purse, and murdering him first, and then taking it. But when one begins to be vicious, it is easy to go on. Where single women are licentious, you rarely find faithful married women." — BoswelL " And yet we are told that in some nations in India, the distinction is strictly observed." — Johnson, " Nay, don't give us India, v / That puts me in mind of Montesquieu, who is really a- fellow of genius too in many respects ; whenever he wants to support a strange opinion, he quotes you the practice of Japan or of some other distant country, of which he knows nothing. To support polygamy, he tells you of the island of Formosa, where there are ten women born for one man. He had but to suppose ano- ther island, where there are ten men born for one wo- oman, and so make a marriage between therri."* * What my friend treated as so wild a suppositon, has actually happened in the Western islands of Scotland, if we may believe Martin, who tells it of the islands of Col and Tyr-yi, and says that it is proved by the parish registers. C C 194 JOURNAL OF A TOUR At supper, Lady Macleod mentioned Dr. Cadogah^s book on the gout. — Johnson. "It is a good book m general, but a foolish one in particulars. It is good in general, as recommending temperance and exercise, and cheerfulness. In that respect it is only Dr. Cheyne's book told in a new way ; and there should come out such a book every thirty years, dressed in the mode of the times. It is foolish, in maintaining that the gout is not hereditary, and that one fit of it, when gone, is like a fever when gone." — Lady Mac- leod objected that the authour does not practice what he teaches. *^ — Johnson. " I cannot help that, madam. That does not make his book the worse. People are influenced more by what a man says, if his practice is suitable to it, — because they are blockheads. The more intellectual people are, the readier will they at- tend to what a man tells them. If it is just, they will follow it, be his practice what it will. No man prac- tices so well as he writes. I have, all my life long, being lying till noon ; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good. Only consider ! you read a book ; you are convinced by it ; you do not know the authour. Suppose you afterwards know him, and find that he does not practise what he teaches ; are 5'^ou to give up your former conviction ? At this rate you would be kept in a state of equilibrium, when reading every book till you knew how the authour practised." — "But, said Lady M'Leod, you would think * This was a general reflection against Dr. Cadogan, when his very popular book was first published. It was said, that whatever precepts he might give to others, he himself indulged freely in the bottle. But I have since had the plea- sure of becoming acquainted with him, and, if his own testimony may be believed (ind I have never heard it iiTipeached,) his course of life has been conformable to his doctrine. * TO THE HEBRIDES, 195 better of Dr. Cadogan, if he acted according to his principles." — Johnson. " Why, madam, to be sure, |. man who acts in the face of Ught, is worse than a man who does not know so much ; yet I think no man should be the worse thought of for publishing good principles. There is something noble in publishing truth, though it condemns one's self." — I expressed some surprize at Cadogan's recommending good humour, as if it were quite in our own power to attain it. — Johnson. " Why sir, a man grows better humoured as he grows older. He improves by experience. When young, he thinks him- self of great consequence, and every thing of importance. As he advances in life, he learns to think himself of no consequence, and little things of little importance ; and so he becomes more patient, and better pleased. All good-humour and complaisance are acquired. Natu- rally a child seizes directly what it sees, and thinks of pleasing itself only. By degrees, it is taught to please others, and to prefer others ; and that this will ultimate- ly produce the greatest happiness. If a man is not con- vinced of that, he never will practise it. Common lan- guage speaks the truth as to this : we say, a person is well bred. As it is said, that all material motion is pri- marily in a right line, and is never per circutum, never in another form, unless by some particular cause ; so it may be said intellectual motion is." — Lady M'Leod asked, if no man was naturally good ? — Johnson. " No, madam, no more than, a wolf." Bosivell. " Nor no woman, sir ?" Johnson. *' No, sir." Lady M'Leod started at this, saying, in a low. voice, " This is worse than Swift." M'Leod of Ulinish had come in the afternoon. We were a jovial company at supper. The Laird, surround- ed by so many of his clan, was to me a pleasing sight. ill JdUilNAL OF A TOUR They listened with wonder and pleasure, while Dr. ^,^ohnson harangued. I am vexed that I cannot take down his full strain of eloquence. Wednesday^ 1 5th Septembei'. The gentlemen of the clan went away early in the morning to the harbour ,of Lochbradale, to take leave of some of their friends who were going to America. It was a very wet day. We looked at Rorie More's horn, which is a large cow's horn, with the mouth of it ornamented with silver .curiously carved. It holds rather more than a bottle and a half. Every Laird of M'Leod, it is said, must, as a proof of his manhood, drink it off full of claret, without laying it down. — From Rorie More many of the branches of the family are descended ; in particular, the Talisker branch ; so that his name is much talked of. We also saw his bow, • which hardly any man now can bend, and his Glaymore^ which was wielded with both hands, and is of a prodi- gious size. We saw here some old pieces of iron armour, immensely heavy. The broad-sword now used, though called the Glaymore, (i e. the great sword, J is much smaller than that used in Rorie More's time. Therfc is hardly a target now to be found in the High- lands. After the disarming act, they made them serve as covers to their butter-milk barrels ; a kind of change, like beating spears into pruning-hooks. , Sir George Mackenzie's Works (the folio edition) happened to lie in a window in the dining room. I asked Dr. Johnson to look at the Characteres Advo- catorum. He allowed him power of mind, and that he understood very well what he tells ; but said, that there was too much declamation, and that the Latin was not TO THE HEBRIDES. 197 correct. He found fault with appropinquabant, in the character of Gilmour. I tried him with the opposition between ^/orm and palma^ in the comparison between Gilmour and Nisbet, which Lord Hailes, in his Cata- logue of the Lords of Session, thinks difficult to be un- derstood. The words are, '-'■ penes ilium gloria^ penes hune palma^ — In a short Account of the Kirk of Scot- land, which I published some years ago, I applied these words to the two contending parties, and explained them thus: "The popular party has most eloquence; Dr. Robertson's party most influence." — I was very desirous to hear Dr. Johnson's explication. — Johnson. " I see no difficulty. Gilmour was admired for his parts; Nisbet carried his cause by his skill in law. Palma is victory." — I pbserved, that the character of Nicholson, in this book resembled that of Burke : for it is said, in one place, " in omnes lusos ^Jocos se seepe resolvebat ;^ and in another, *■'• sed accipitris more e conspectu aliquando astantium suhlimi se protrahens volatu^ in praedam miro impetu descendebat.''''-\ — Johnson. "No, sir; I never heard Burke make a good joke in my life " — BoswelL "But sir, you will allow he is a hawk." — Dr. Johnson, thinking that I meant this of his joking, said, " No, sir, he is not a hawk there. He is the beetle in the mire." — li still adhered to my metaphor, — " But he soars as the hawk." — Johnson. "Yes, sir; but he catches nothing." — IVl'Leod asked, what is the particular excellence of Burke's eloquence ? — Johnson. " Copi- ousness, and fertility of allusion; a power of diversify- ing his matter, by placing it in various relations. Burke * He often indulged himself in every species of pleasantry and wit. f But like the hawk, having soared with a lofty flight to a height which the eye could not reach, hg., yy^s ..H8fl t ^ swoop upon his quarry with wonderful rapidity . I-. 198 JOURNAL OF A TOUR has great information, and great command of language ; though, in my opinion, it has not in every respect the highest elegance."— ^o^e//. "Do you think*, sir, that Burke has read Cicero much ^—Johnson. " I don't believe it, sir. Burke has great knowledge, great fluency of words, and great promptness of ideas, so that he can speak with great illustration on any subject that comes before him. He is neither like Cicero, nor like Demosthenes, nor like any one else, but speaks as well as he can." In the 65th page of the first volume of Sir George Mackenzie, Dr. Johnson pointed out a paragraph begin^ ning ^vith Aristotle, and told me there was an error in the text, which he bade me try to discover. I was lucky enough to hit it at once. As the passage is printed, it is said that the devil answers even in engines. I cor- rected it to— ^«?r in anigmas. "Sir, (said he,) you are a good critick. This would have been a great thing to do in the text of an ancient authour." Thursday^ &th September. Last night much care was taken of Dr. Johnson, who was still distressed by his cold. He had hitherto most strangely slept without a night-cap. Miss M'Leod made him a large flannel one, and he was prevailed with to drink a little brandy when he was going to bed. He has great virtue, in not drinking wine or any fermented liquor, because, as he acknowledged to us, he could not. do it in moderation.— Lady M'Leod would hardly be- lieve him, and said, " I am sure, sir, ypu would not carry it too ^^v.^'— Johnson. " Nay, madam, it carried me. I took the opportunity of a long illness to leave it off. It was then prescribed to me not to drink wine; TO THE HEBRIDES. 199 3nd having broken off the habit, I have never returned to it." # In the argument on Tuesday night, about natural goodness, Dr. Johnson denied that any child was better than another, but by difference of instruction ; though, in consequence of greater attention being paid to instruc- tion by one child tjian another, and of a variety of im- perceptible causes, such as instruction being coun- teracted by servants, a notion was conceived, that of two children, equally well educated, one was naturally much worse than the other. He owned, this morning, that one might have a greater aptitude to learn than ano- ther, and that we inherit dispositions from our parents. " I inherited, (said he,) a vile melancholy from mj' father, which has made me mad all my life, at least not sober." — Lady M'Leod wondered he should tell this. — " Madam, (said I,) he knows that with that madness he is superior to other men." I have often been astonished with what exactness and perspicuity he will explain the process of any art. He this morning explained to us all the operation of 4§ coining, and, at night, all the operation of brewing, so very clearly, that Mr. M'Queen said, when he heard the first, he thought he had been bred in the Mint ; when he heard the second, that he had been bred a brewer. I was elated by the thought of having been able to -entice such a man to this remote part of the world. A ludicrous, yet just, image presented itself to my mind, which I expressed to the company. 1 compared my- self to a dog who has got hold of a large piece of meat, and runs away with it to a corner, where he may devour it in peace, without any fear of others taking it from him. *' In Londdn, Reynolds, Beauclerk, and all of them, are » 200 JOURNAL OF A TOUR contending who shall enjoy Dr. Johnson's conversation. We are feasting upon it, undisturbed, at Dunvegan." It was still a storm of wind and rain. Dr Johnsbn however walked out with M'Leod, and saw Rorie More's cascade infuli perfection. Colonel M'Leod, in- stead of being all life and gaiety, as I have seen him, was at present grave, and somewhat depressed by his anx- ious concern about M'Leod's affairs, and by finding some gentlemen of the clan by no means disposed to act a generous or affectionate part to their Chief in his distress, but bargaining with him as with a stranger. However, he was agreeable and polite, aiid Dr. Johnson said, he was a very pleasing man.^ — My fellow-travel- ler and I talked of going to Sweden; and, while we were settling our plan, I expressed a pleasure in the prospect of seeing the king. — Johnson. " I doubt, sir, ijfll^ would speak to us."— Colonel M'Leod said, " I am sure Mr. Boswell would speak to Am." But, see- ing me a little disconcerted by his remark, he politely added, " and with great propriety." — Here let me offer a short defence of that propensity in my disposition, to which this gentleman alluded. It has procured me much happiness. I hope it does not deserve so hard a name as either forwardness or impudence. If I know myself, it is nothing more than an eagerness to share the society of men distinguished either by their rank or their talents, and a diligence to attain what I desire. If a man is praised for seeking knowledge, though mountains and seas g.re in his way, may he not be pardoned, whose ar- dour, in the pursuit of the same object, leads him to en- counter difficulties as great, though of a different kind ? After the ladies were gone from table, we talked of the Highlanders not having sheets ; and this led us to consider the advantage of wearing linen. — Johnson. ;^ -to THE HEBRIDES. 201 ^^ All animal substances are less cleanly than vegetables. Wool, of which flannel is made, is an animal substance j flannel therefore is not so cleanly as linen. I remember I used to think tar dirty ; but when I knew it to be only a preparation of the j nice of the pine, I thought so no longer. It is not disagreeable to have the gum that oozes from a plumb-tree upon your fingers, because it is vegetable ; but if you have any candle -grease, any tallow upon your fingers, you are uneasy till you rub it off. — I have often thought, that, if I kept a seraglio, the ladies should, all wear linen gowns, — or cotton ;— I mean stuffs made of vegetable substances. 1 would have no silk ; you cannot tell when it is clean : It will be very nasty before it is perceived to be so. Linen detects its own dirtiness." To hear the grave Dr. Samuel Johnson, " that ma- jestick teacher of moral and religious wisdom," while sitting solemn in an arm-chair in the isle of Sky, talk, eoc cathedra, of his keeping a seraglio, and acknowledge that the supposition had often been in his thoughts, struck me so forcibly with ludicrous contrast, that I could not but laugh immoderately He was too proud to submit, even for a moment, to be the object of ridi- cule, and instantly retaliated with such keen sarcastick wit, and such a variety of degrading images, of every one jpf which I was the object, that, though I., can bear such attacks as well as most men, I yet found myself so much the sport of all the company, that I would gladly expunge from my mind every trace of this severe retort. Talking of our friend Langton's house in Lincoln- shire, he said, " the old house of the family was burnt, A temporary building was erected in its room ; and to this they have been always adding as the family in- D d A " # ..f 2.C^ JOURNAL OP A TOUR creased. It is like a shi;:t made for a man when lie was a child, and enlarged always as he grows older." . We talked to- night of Luther's allowing the Land- grave of Hesse two wives, and that it was with the con- sent of the ^vife to whom he was first married,. — Johrt" mn, '* There Vv-as no harm in this, so far as she was- only concerned, because volenti nen Jit injuria. But it was art offence against the general order of society, and against the law of the Gospel, by which one man and Dr. Johnson, we first talked of portraits. He agreed in thinking them valuable in families. I wished to know which he preferred, fine portraits, or those of which the merit was resemblance. — Johnson". "Sir, their chief excellence is in being like." — BoswelL " Are you of that opinion, as to the portraits of anoes- *'#d" THE HEBRIDES. 205' tors whom one has never seen ?" — Johnson. *' It then becomes of more consequence that they should behkej and I would have them in the dress of the times, which makes a piece of history. One should like to see how Rorie More looked. Truth, sir, is of the greatest value in these things." — Mr. M 'Queen observed, that if you think it of no consequence whether portraits are like, if they are but well painted, you may be indif- ferent whether a piece of history is true or not, if well told. *» 'A- Dr. Johnson said at breakfast to day, "that it was but of late that historians bestowed pains and attention in consulting records, to attain to accuracy. Bacon, in writing his History of Henry VH, does not seem to have consulted any, but to have just taken what he- found in other histories, and blended it with what he learnt by tradition." He agreed with me that there should be a chronicle kept in every considerable family, to preserve the characters and transactions of successive generations. After dinner I started the subject of the temple of Anaitis. Mr. M'Queen had laid stress on the name given to the place by the country people,— ./^mwzV ,• and added, " I knew not what to make of this piece of anti- quity, till I met with the Anaitidis deliibr'um in Lydia, mentioned by Pausanias and the elder Pliny." — Dr. Johnson, with his usual acuteness, examined Mr. M'Queen as to the meaning of the word Ainnit, in Erse ; and it proved to be a xvater-place, or a place near water, " which, said Mr. M'Queen, agrees with all the des- criptions of the temples of that goddess, which were situated near rivers, that there might be water to wash the statue." — Johnson. " Nay, sir, the argument from the name is g 276 JOURNAL OF A TOUR drink, and sleep, and walk about, and enjoy my own thoughts; and I can figure a continuation of this." — Johnson. " Ay, sir ; but if you were shut up here, your own thoughts would torment you : you M'ould think of Edinburgh or London, and that you could not be there." We set out after dinner, for Breacacha^ the family seat of the Laird of Col, accompanied by the young laird, who had now got a horse, and by the younger Mr. M'Sweyn, whose wife had gone thither before us, to prepare every thing for our reception, the laird and his family being absent at Aberdeen. It is called Breacacha, or the Spotted Field, because in summer it is enamelled with clover and daisies, as young Col told me. We passed by a place where there is a very large stone, I may call it a rock ; — " a vast weight for Ajax." The tradition is, that a giant threw such another stone at his mistress up to the top of a hill at a small distance ; and that she, in return, threw this mass down to him. It was all in sport. Afalo me petit lasciva puella* As we advanced, we came to a large extent of plain ground. I had not seen such a place for a long time. Col and I took a gallop upon it by way of race. It was very refreshing to me, after having been so long taking short steps in hilly countries. It was like stretching a man's legs after being cramped in a short bed. We also passed close by a large extent of sand-hills, near two miles square. Dr. Johnson said, " he never had the image before. It was horrible, if barrenness and danger could be so." I heard him, after we were in the house of Breacacha, repeating to himself, as he walked about the room, " And, smother'd in the dusty whirlwind, dies." TO THE HEBRIDES. 277 Probably he had been thinking of the whole of the simile in Cato, of which that is the concluding line : the sandy desart had struck him so strongly. The sand has of late been blown over a good deal of meadow ; and the people of the island say, that their fathers remembered much of the space which is now covered with sand, to have been under tillage. Col's house is situated on a bay called Breacacha Bay. We found here a neat new-built gentleman's house, better than any we had been in since we were at Lord Errol's. Dr. Johnson relished it much at first, but soon remarked to me that " there was nothing becoming a Chief about it : it was a mere tradesman's box." He seemed quite at home, and no longer found any difficulty in using the Highland address ; for as soon as we arrived, he said, with a spirited familiarity, " Now, Col^ if you could get us a dish of tea." — Dr. Johnson and I had each an ex- cellent bed-chamber. We had a dispute which of us had the best curtains. His were rather the best, being of linen ; but I insisted that my bed/ had the best posts, which was undeniable. " Well, (said he,) if you have the h^'sXposts^ we will have you tied to them, and whip- ped." — I mention this slight circumstance, only to shew how ready he is, even in mere trifles, to get the better of his antagonist, by placing him in a ludicrous view. I have known him sometimes use the same art, when hard pressed, in serious disputation. Goldsmith, I re- member, to retaliate for many a severe defeat which he has suffered from him, applied to him a lively saying in one of Cibber's comedies, which puts this part of his character in a strong light, — " There is no arguing with Johnson ; for, if his pistol misses Jii'e, he knocks you down with the hut-end of it, '''* 278 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Wednesday^ 6th October. After a sufficiency of sleep, we assembled at break- fast. We were just as if in barracks. Every body was master. We went and viewed the old castle of Col, which is not far from the present house, near the shore, and founded on a rock. It has never been a large feudal residence, and has nothing about it that requires a parti- cular description. Like other old inconvenient buildings of the same age, it exemplified Gray's picturesque lines, '* Huge windows that exclude the light, '' And passages that lead to nothing," It may however be worth mentioning, that on the second story we saw a vault, which was, and still is, the family prison. There was a woman put into it by the laird, for theft, within these ten years ; and any oiFender would be confined there yet ; for, from the ne- cessity of the thing, as the island is remote from any power established by law, the laird must exercise his jurisdiction to a certain degree. We were shewn, in a corner of this vault, a hole, into which Col said greater criminals used to be put. It was now filled up with rubbish of different kinds. He said, it was of a great depth. '' Ay, (said Dr. John- son, smiling,) all such places, that are filled up, were of a great depth." He is very quick in shewing that he does not give credit to careless or exaggerated accounts of things. After seeing the castle, we looked at a small hut near it. It is called Teigh Franchich, i. e. the Frenchman's House. Col could not tell us the history of it. A poor man with a wife and children now lived in it. We went into it, and Dr. Johnson T© THE HEBRIDES.* - 279 'A gave them some charity. There was but one bed for the whole family, and the hut was very smoky. When he came out, he said to me, " £t hoc secundum senten- tiam pJulosophorum est esse beatus.^'' — Bosxvell. " The philosophers, when they placed happiness in a cottage, supposed cleanliness and no smoke." — Johnson, *' Sir they did not think about either." We walked a little in the laird's garden, in which endeavours have been used to rear some trees ; but, as soon as they got above the surrounding wall they died. Dr. Johnson recommended sowing the seeds of hardy trees, instead of planting. Col and I rode out this morning, and viewed a part of the island. In the course of our ride, we saw a tur- nip-field, which he had hoed with his own hands. He first introduced this kind of husbandry into the Western islands. We also looked at an appearance of lead, which seemed very promising. It has been long known ; for I found letters to the late laird from Sir John Are- skine and Sir Alexander Murray, respecting it. After dinner came Mr. M'Lean, of Corneck, bro- ther to Isle of Muck, who is a cadet of the familv of Col. He possesses the two ends of Col which belono- to the Duke of Argyll. Corneck had lately taken a lease of them at a very advanced rent, rather than let the Campbells get a footing in the island, one of whom had oifered nearly as much as he. Dr. Johnson well observed, that, " landlords err much when they calcu- late merely what their land mai^ yield. The rent must be in a proportionate ratio of what the land may yield and of the power of the tenant to make it yield. A te- nant cannot make by his land, but according to the corn and cattle which he has. Suppose you should mve him twice as much land as he has, it does him nogood^ 280 JOURNAL OF A TOUR unless he gets also more stock. It is clear then, that the Highland landlords, who let their substantial tenants leave them, are infatuated ; for the poor small tenants cannot give them good rents, from the very nature of things. They have not the means of raising more from their farms." Corneck, Dr. Johnson said, was the most distinct man that he had met with in these isles ; he did not shut his eyes, or put his fingers in his ears, which he seemed to think was a good deal the mode with most of the people whom we have seen of late. Thursday^ 1th October, Captain M'Lean joined us this morning at break- fast. There came on a dreadful storm of wind and rain, which continued all day, and rather increased at night. The wind was directly against our getting to Mull. We were in a strange state of abstraction from the world : we could neither hear from our friends, nor write to them. Col had brought. Daille on the Fathers, Lucas on Happiness, and More's Dialogues, from the Reverend Mr. M'Lean's, and Burnet's History of his own Times from Captain M'Lean's ; and he had of his own some books of Farming, and Gregory's Geometry. Dr. Johnson read a good deal of Burnet, and of Gre- gory, and I observed he made some geometrical notes in the end of his pocket-book. I read a little of Young's Six Weeks Tour through the Southern Counties ; and Ovid's Epistles, which I had bought at Inverness, and which helped to solace many a weary hour. We were to have gone with Dr. Johnson this morn- ing to see the mine ; but Avere prevented by the storm. TO THE HEBRIDES. 281 While it was ^raging, he said, " We may be glad we are not damnati ad metalla.^'* Friday^ 8th October. Dr. Johnson appeared to day very weary of our pre- sent confined situation. He said, "I want to be on the main land, and go on with existence. This is a waste of life." I shall here insert without regard to chronology, some of his conversation at different times. " There was a man some time ago, who was well re- ceived for two years, among the gentlemen of North- amptonshire, by calling himself my brother. At last he grew so impudent as by his influence to get tenants turned out of their farms. Allen the Printer, who is of that county, ca me to me, asking, with much appearance of doubtfulness, if I had a brother ; and upon being as- sured I had none alive, he told me of the imposition, and immediately wrote to the country, and the fellow was dismissed. It pleased me to hear that so much was got by using my name. It is not every name that can car- ry double ; do both for a man's self and his brother (laughing). I should be glad to see the fellow. How- ever, I could have done nothing against him. A man can have no redress for his name being used, or ridicu- lous stories being told of him in the news-papers, except he can shew that he has suffered damage. — Some years ago a foolish piece was published, said to be written * by S. Johnson.^ Some of my friends wanted me to be very angry about this, t said, it would be in vain ; for the answer would be, S. Johnson may be Simon John- son, or Simeon Johnson, or Solomon Johnson;' and even o* o 282 JOURNAL OF A TOUR if the full name, Samuel Johnson, had been used, it might be said ; ' it is not you ; it is a much cleverer fellow.' " Beauclerk and I, and Langton, and Lady Sydney Beauclerk, mother to our friend, were one day driving in a coach by Cuper's Gardens, which were then unoc- pied. I, in sport, proposed that Beauclerk and Lang- ton, and myself should take them ; and we amused our- selves with scheming how we should all do our parts. Lady Sydney grew angry, and said, " an old man should not put such things in young people's heads.' She had no notion of a joke, sir ; had come late into life, and had a mighty unpliable understanding. " Cartels Life of the Duke of Ormond is considered as a book of authority ; but it is ill-written. The mat- ter is diffused in too many words ; there is no animation, no compression, no vigour. Two good volumes in duo- decimo might be made out of the two in folio." Talking of our confinement here, I observed, that our discontent and impatience could not be considered as very unreasonable ; for that we were just in the state of which Seneca complains so grievously, while in exile in Corsica. " Yes, (said Dr. Johnson,) and he Avas not farther from home than we are." The truth is, he was much nearer. There was a good deal of rain to-day, and the wind was still contrary. Corneck attended me, while I amused myself in examining a collection of papers belonging to the family of Col. The first laird was a younger son of the Chieftain M'Lean, and got the middle pait of Col for his patrimony. Dr. Johnson having given a very particular account of the connection between this familv and a branch of the familv of Camerons, called TO THE HEBRIDES. 283 M'Lonich, I sliail only insert the following document, (which I found in Col's cabinet,) as a proof of its con- tinuance, even to a late period : To the Laird of Col. " Dear Sir, " THE long-standing tract of firm affectionate friendship 'twixt your worthy predecessors and ours af- fords us such assurance, as that we may have full rely- ance on your favour and undoubted friendship, in re- commending the bearer, Ewen Cameron, our cousin, son to the deceast Dugall M'Connil of Innermaillie, sometime in Glenpean, to your favour and conduct, who is a man of undoubted honesty and discretion, only that he has the misfortune of being alledged to have been accessory to the killing of one of M'Martin's family about fourteen years ago, upon which alledgeance the M'Martins are now so sanguine on revenging, that they are fully resolved for the deprivation of his life ; to the preventing of which you are relyed on. by us, as the only fit instrument, and a most capable person. Therefore your favour and protection is expected and intreated, during his good behaviour ; and failing of which be- haviour, you'll please to use him as a most insignificant person deserves. " Sir, he had, upon the alledgeance foresaid, been transported, at LochiePs desire, to France, to gratify the M'Martins, and upon his return home about five years ago, married : But now he is so much threatened by the M'Martins, that he is not secure enough to stay where he is, being Ardmurchan, which occasions this trouble to you. Wishing prosperity and happiness to 254 JOURNAL OF A TOtTR attend still yourself, worthy Lady, and good family, we are, in the most affectionate manner, Dear sir, Your most obliged, affectionate, and most humble servants, DuGALL Cameron, of Strone. DuGALL Cameron, of Barr. DuGALL Cameron, of Invmskvouilline, Dug ALL Cameron, of Invirivalie.^^ Strone, 11th March, 1737. Ewen Cameron was protected, and his son has now a farm from the Laird of Col, in Mull. The family of Col was very loyal in the time of the great Montrose, from whom I found two letters, in his own hand- writing. The first is as follows : For my very loving friend the Laird of CoalL '■' Sir, " I must heartily thank you for all your willing- ness and good affection to his Majesty's service, and particularly the sending alongs of your son, to who I will heave ane particular respect, hopeing also that you will still continue ane good instrument for the advanceing ther of the king's service, for which, and all your for- mer lo}^al carnages, be confident you shall find the effects of his Ma~s favour, as they can be witnessed you by Your very faithful friende, Sti-ethearne MoNTROSE." 30 Jan . I64t). The other is, For the Laird of Col. ^' Sir, *' HAVING occasion to write to your fields, I cannot be forgetful of your willingness and good affec- TO THE HEBRIDES. 285 tion to his majesty's service. I acknowledge to you, and thank you heartily for it, assuring, that in what lyes in my power, you shall find the good. Meanwhile, I shall expect that you will continue your loyal endeavours, in wishing those slack people that are about you, to appear more obedient than they do, and loyal in their prince's service ; whereby I assure you, you shall find me ever Your faithful friend, i^?^"^'i«.fi Montrose. "*- 17 April, 1646. I found some uncouth lines on the death of the pre- sent laird's father, intituled " Nature's Elegy on the Death of Donald Maclean of Col." They are not worth insertion. I shall only give what is called his Epitaph, which Dr. Johnson said, " was not so very bad." ^' Nature's minion, Virtue's wonder, " Art's corrective, here lyes under." I asked, what " Art's corrective" meant. " Why, sir, (said he,) that the laird was so exquisite, that he set art right, when she was wrong." I found several letters to the late Col, from my father's old companion at Paris, Sir Hector M'Lean, one of which was written at the time of settling the colony in Georgia. It dissuades Col from letting people go there, and assures him there will soon be an oppor- tunity of employing them better at home. Hence it ap- pears that emigration from the Highlands, though not in such numbers at a time as of late, has always been practised. Dr. Johnson obser\-ed, that, " the Lairds, * It is observable that men of the first rank spelt very ill in the last century. In the first of these letters I have preserved the original spelling. 286 JOURNAL OF A TOUR instead of improving their country, diminished their people.'* There are several districts of sandy desart in Col. There are forty- eight lochs of fresh water ; but many of them are very small, — mere pools. About one half of them, however, have trout and eel. There is a great number of horses in tlie island, mostly of a small size. Being over-stocked, they sell some in Tir-yi, and on the main land. Their black cattle, which are chiefly rough-haired, are reckoned remarkably good. The cli- mate being verj^ mild inwinter, they never put their beasts in any house. The lakes are never frozen so as to bear a man ; and snow never lies above a few hours. They have a good many sheep, which they eat mostly them- selves, and sell but a few. They have goats in several places. There are no foxes ; no serpents, toads, or frogs, nor any venomous creature. They have otters and mice here ; but had no rats till lately that an Ameri- can vessel brought them. There is a rabbit-warren, on the north-east of the island, belonging to the Duke of Argyle. Young Col intends to get some hares, of which there are none at present. There are no black-cock, muir-fowl,norpartridges; but there are snipe, wild-duck, wild-geese, and swans, in winter ; wild pigeons, plover, and great number of starlings ; of which I shot some, and found them pretty good eating. Woodcocks come hither, though there is not a tree upon the island. There are no rivers in Col ; but only some brooks, in which there is a great variety of fish. In the whole isle there are but three hills, and none of them considerable, for a Highland country. The people are very industrious. Every man can tan. They get oak, and birch-bark, and lime, from the main land. Some have pits ; but they commonly use tubs. I saw brogues very well TO THE HEBRIDES. , 287 tanned ; and every man can make them. They all make candles of the tallow of their beasts, both mould- ed and dipped ; and they all make oil of the livers of fish. The little fish called Cuddies produce a great deal. They sell some oil out of the island, and they use it much for light in their houses, in little iron lamps, most of which they have from England ; but of late their own blacksmith makes them. He is a good workman ; but he has no employment in shoeing horses, for they all go unshod here, except some of a better kind belonging to young Col, which were now in Mull. There are two carpenters in Col : but most of the inhabitants can do something as boat-carpenters. They can all dye. Heath is used for yellow ; and for red, a moss which grows on stones. They make broad cloth, and tartan and linen, of their own wool and flax, sufficient for their own use ; as also stockings. Their bonnets come from the main land. Hard-ware and several small articles are brought annually from Gree- nock, and sold in the only shop in the island, which is kept near the house, or rather hut, used for public wor- ship, there being no church in the island. — The inha- bitants of Col have increased considerably within these thirty years, as appears from the parish registers. There are but three considerable tacksmen on Col's part of the island : the rest is let to small ' tenants, some of whom pay so low a rent as four, three, or even two guineas. The highest is seven pounds, paid by a farmer, whose son goes yearly on foot to Aberdeen for education, and in summer returns, and acts as a school-master in Col. Dr. Johnson, said, " There is somediing noble in a young man's walking- two hundred miles and back again, every year for the sake of learninsr." 288 JOURNAL OF A TOUR This day a number of people came to Col, with complaints of each others' trespasses. Comeck, to prevent their being troublesome, told them, that the lawyer from Edinburgh was here, and, if they did not agree, he would take them to task. They were alarmed at this ; said, they had never been used to go to law, and hoped Col would settle matters himself. — In the evening Corneck left us. Saturday^ 9th October, As, in our present confinement, any thing that had even the name of curious was an object of attention, I proposed that Col should show me the great stone, mentioned in a former page, as having been thrown by a giant to the top of a mountain. Dr. Johnson, who did not like to be left alone, said he would accompany us as far as riding was practicable. We ascended a part of the hill on horseback, and Col and I scrambled up the rest. A servant held our horses, and Dr. Johnson placed himself on the ground, with his back against a large fragment of rock. The wind being high, he let down the cocks of his hat, and tied it with his handker- chief under his chin. While we were emploj'ed in ex- amining the stone, which did not repay our trouble in getting to it, he amused himself with reading Gataker on Lots and on the Christian Watch^ a very learned book, of the last age, which had been found in the garret of Col's house, and which he said was a treasure here. When we descried him from above, he had a most eremetical appearance ; and on our return told us, he had been so much engaged by Gataker, that he had never missed us. His avidity for variety of books, while we were in Col, was frequently expressed \ and TO THE HEBRIDES. 289 he often complained that so few were within his reach. Upon which I observed to him, that it was strange he should complain of want of books, when he could at any time make such good ones. We next proceeded to the lead mine. In our way we came to a strand of some extent, where we were glad to take a gallop, in which my learned friend joined with great alacrity. Dr. Johnson mounted on a large bay mare without shoes, and followed by a foal, which had some difficulty in keeping up with him, was a sin- gular spectacle. After examining the mine, we returned through a very uncouth district, full of sand hills ; down which, though apparent precipices, our horses carried us with safety, the sand always gently sliding away from their feet. Vestiges of houses were pointed out to us, which Col, and two others who had joined us, asserted had been overwhelmed with sand blown over them. But, ongoing close to one of them, Dr. Johnson shewed the absurdity of the notion, by remarking, that " it was evidently only a house abandoned, the stones of which had been taken away for other purposes ; for the large stones, which form the lower part of the walls, were still standing higher than the sand. If they were not blown over, it was clear nothing higher than they could be blown over." This was quite convincing to me; but it made not the least impression on Col and the others, who were not to be argued out of a Highland tradition. We did not sit down to dinner till between six and seven. We lived plentifully here, and had a true wel- come. In such a season, good firing was of no small importance. The peats were excellent, and burned cheerfully. Those at Dunvegan, which were damp, . pp 290 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Dr. Johnson called " a sullen fuel."— Here a Scottish phrase was singularly applied to him. One of the com- pany having remarked that he had gone out on. a stormy evening and brought in a supply of peats from the stack, Old Mr. M'Sweyn said, "that was main honest V Blenheim being occasionally mentioned, he told me he had never seen it : he had not gone formerly ; and he would not go now, just as a common spectator, for his money : he would not put it in the power of some man about the Duke of Marlborough to say, ' Johnson was here ; I knew him, but I took no notice of him.' He said, he would be very glad to see it, if properly in- vited, which in all probability would never be the case, as it was not worth his while to seek for it. — I observed, that4ie might be easily introduced there by a common friend of ours, nearly related to the duke. He answer- ed, with an uncommon attention to delicacy of feeling, *' I doubt whether our friend be on such a footing with the duke as to carry any body there ; and I would not give him the uneasiness of seeing that I knew he was not, or even of being himself reminded of it." Sunday^ lOtk October. There was this day the most terrible storm of wind and rain that I ever remember. It made such an awful impression on us all, as to produce, for some time, a kind of dismal quietness in the house. The day was passed without much conversation : only, upon my observing that there must be something bad in a man's mind, who does not like to give leases to his tenants, but wishes to keep them in a perpetual wretched dependence on his will, Dr. Johnson said, " You are right : it is a man's duty to extend comfort and security among as many TO THE HEBRIDES. 291 people as he can. He should not wish to have his tenants mere Ephemera, — mere beings of anhom\" — Boswell. " But, sir, if they have leases, is there not some danger that they may grow insolent ? I remember you your- self once told me, an English tenant was so independent, that, if provoked, he would throxv his rent at his land- lord." — Johnson. " Depend upon it, sir, it is the land- lord's own fault, if it is thrown at him. A man may always keep his tenants in dependence enough, though they have leases. He must be a good tenant, indeed, who will not fall behind in his rent, if his landlord will let him ; and if he does fall behind, his landlord has him at his mercy. Indeed, the poor man is always much at the mercy of the rich ; no matter whether landlord or tenant. If the tenant lets his landlord have a little rent before-hand, or has lent him money, then the land- lord is in his power. There cannot be a greater man than a tenant who has lent money to his landlord ; for he has under subjection the very man to whom he should be subjected." • Monday .f Wth October. We had some days ago engaged the Campbelltown vessel to carry us to Mull, from the harbour where she lay. The morning was fine, and the wind fair and mo- derate ; so we hoped at length to get away. Mrs. M'Sweyn, who officiated as our landlady here, had never been on the main land. On hearing this, Dr. Johnson said to me, before her, " That is rather being behind-hand with life. I would at least go and see Gle- nelg." — Bosrwell. " You yourself, sir, have never seen, till now, any thing but your native island." — Johnson. " But, sir, by seeing London, I have seen as much of # % 292 JOURNAL OF A TOUR li^e as the world can shew." — Boswell. " You have not seen Pekin." — Johnson. " What is Pekin? Ten thou- sand Londoners would drive all the people of Pekin : they would drive them like deer," We set out about eleven for the harbour ; but, be- fore we reached it, so violent a storm came on, that we were obliged again to take shelter in the house of Cap- tain M'Lean, where we dined, and passed the night. Tuesday^ \2th October. After breakfast, we made a second attempt to get to the harbour ; but another storm soon convinced us that it would be in vain. Captain M'Lean's house being in some confusion, on account of Mrs. M'Lean being ex- pected to lie-in, we resolved to go to Mr. M'Swcyn's, where we arrived very wet, fatigued, and hungry. In this situation, we were somewhat disconcerted by being told that we should have no dinner till late in the even- ing ; but should have tea in the mean time. Dr. John- son opposed this arrangement ; but they persisted, and he took the tea very readily. He said, to me after- wards, " You must consider, sir, a dinner here is a mat- ter of great consequence. It is a thing to be first planned, and then executed. I suppose the mutton was brought some miles off, from some place where they knew there was a sheep killed." Talking of the good people with whom we were, he said, " Life has not got at all forward by a generation in M'Sweyn's famil}'^ ; for the son is exactly formed upon the father. What the father says, the son says ; and what the father looks, the son looks." There being little conversation to-night, I must en- deavour to recollect what I may have omitted on former TO THE HEBRIDES. 29S occasions. — When I boasted, at Rasay, of my indepen- dency of spirit, and that I could not be bribed, he said, " Yes, you may be bribed by flattery." — At the Reve- rend Mr. M'Lean's Dr. Johnson asked him, if the peo- ple of Col had any superstitions. He said, " No." The cutting peats at the increase of the moon was mention- ed as one ; but he would not allow it, saying, it was not a superstition, but a whim. Dr. Johnson would not admit the distinction. There were many superstitions, he maintained, not connected with religion ; and this was one of them. — On Monday we had a dispute at the Captain's, whether sand-hills could be fixed down by art. Dr. Johnson said, " How the devil can you do it V but instantly corrected himself, " How can you do it ?" — r\ never before heard him use a phrase of that nature. He has particularities which it is impossible to ex- plain. He never wears a night-cap, as I have already mentioned ; but he puts a handkerchief on his head in the night. — The day that we left Talisker, he bade us ride on. He then turned the head of his horse back towards Talisker, stopped for some time ; then wheeled round to the same direction with ours, and then came briskly after us. He sets open a window in the coldest day or night, and stands before it. It may do with his constitution ; but most people, amongst whom I am one, would say, with the frogs in the fable, " This may be sport to you ; but it is death to us." — It is in vain to try to find a meaning in every one of his particularities, which, I suppose, are mere habits^ contracted by chance ; of which every man has some that are more or less re- markable. His speaking to himself, or rather repeating, is a common habit with studious men accustomed to deep thinking ; and, in consequence of their being thus rapt, they will even laugh by themselves, if the subject which 294 JOURNAL OF A TOUR they are musing on is a merry one. Dr. Johnson is often uttering pious ejaculations, when he appears to be talk- ing to himself ; for sometimes his voice grows stronger, and parts of the Lord's Prayer are heard. I have sat beside him with more than ordinary reverence on such occasions.* In our Tour, I observed that he was disgusted when- ever he met with coarse manners. He said to me, *' I know not how it is, but I cannot bear low life : and I find others, who hdve as good a right as I to be fastidi- ous, bear it better, by having mixed more with different sorts of men. You would think that I have mixed pret- ty well too." He read this day a good deal of my Journal, written in a small book with which he had supplied me, and was pleased, for he said, " I wish thy books were twice as big." He helped me to fill up blanks which I had left in first writing it, when I was not quite sure of what he had said, and he corrected any mistakes that I had made. " They call me a scholar, (said he,) and yet how very little literature is there in my conversation." — Boswell. *' That, sir, must be according to your company. You would not give literature to those who cannot taste it. Stay till we meet Lord Elibank." We had at last a good dinner, or rather supper, and were very well satisfied with our entertainment. Wednesday, 13th October. Col called me up, with intelligence that it was a good day for a passage to Mull ; and just as we rose, a sailor * It is remarkable, that Dr. Johnson should have read this account of some of his own peculiar habits, without saying any thing on the subject, which I hoped he would have done. TO THE HEBRIDES. 295 from the vessel arrived for for us. We got all ready with dispatch. Dr. Johnson was displeased at my bust- ling, and walking quickly up and down. He said, " It does not hasten us a bit. It is getting on horseback in a ship. Ail boys do it ; and you are longer a boy than others." He himself has no alertness, or whatever it may be called ; so he may dislike it, as Oderunt hilarem tristes. Before we reached the harbour, the wind grew high again. However, the small boat was waiting, and took us on board. We remained for some time in uncer- tainty what to do ; at last it was determined, that, as a good part of the day was over, and it was dangerous to be at sea at night, in such a vessel, and such weather, we should not sail till the morning tide, when the wind would probably be more gentle. We resolved not to go ashore again, but lie here in readiness. Dr. Johnson and I had each a bed in the cabbin. Col sat at the fire in the forecastle, with the captain, and Joseph, and the rest. I eat some dry oatmeal, of which I found a bar- rel in the cabbin. I had not done this since I was a boy. Dr. Johnson owned that he too was fond of it when a boy ; a circumstance which I was highly pleased to hear from him, as it gave me an opportunity of observing that, 'notwithstanding his joke on the article of oats, he was himself a proof that this kind oijbod was not peculiar to the people of Scotland. Thursday^ YA when he undressed, he felt his feet in the mire : that is, the clay-floor of the room, on which he stood before he went into bed, was wet, in consequence of the wmdows being broken, which let in the rain. Sunday^ 11 th October. Being informed that there was nothing worthy of observation in Uiva, we took boat, and proceeded to Inchkenneth, where we were introduced by, our friend Col to Sir Allan M'Lean, the Chief of his clan, and to two young ladies, his daughters. Inchkenneth is a pretty little island, a mile long, and about half a mile broad, all good land. As we walked up from the shore, Dr. Johnson*s heart was cheered by the sight of a road marked with cart-wheels, as on the main land ; a thing which we had not seen for a long time. It gave us a pleasure similar to that which a traveller feels, when, whilst wandering on what he fears is a desert island, he perceives the orint of human feet. Military men acquire excellent habits of having all conveniencies about them. Sir Allan M'Lean, who had been long in the army, and had now a lease of the Ttir'THE HEBRIDES. 311 island, had formed a commodious habitation, though it consisted but of a few small buildings, only one story high. He had in his little apartments, more things than I could enumerate in a page or two. Among other agreeable circumstances, it was not the least, to find here a parcel of the Caledonian Mer- cury, published since we left Edinburgh ; which I read with that pleasure which every man feels who has been for some time secluded from the animated scenes of the busy world. Dr. Johnson found books here. He bade me buy Bishop GastrelPs Christian Institutes, which was lying in the room. He said, " I do not like to read any thing on a Sunday, but what is theological ; not that I would scrupulously refuse to look at any thing which a friend should shew me in a news-paper ; but in gene- ral, I would read only what is theological, — I read just now some of Drummond's Travels, before I perceived what books were here. I then took up Derham's Phy sico- Theology. Every particular concerning this island having been so well described by Dr. Johnson, it would be super- fluous in me to present the publick with the observations that I made upon it, in my journal. I was quite easy with Sir Allen almost instanta- neously. He knew the great intimacy that had been between my father and his predecessor, Sir Hector, and was himself of a very frank disposition. — After dinner, Sir Allen said he had got Dr. Campbell about an hundred subscribers to his Britannia Elucidata, (a work since published under the title o^A Political Sur- vey of Great Britain^ of whom he believed twenty were dead, the publication having been so long delayed. — Johnson, " Sir, I imagine the delay of publication is 312 JOURNAL OF A TOUR owing to this ; — that, after publication, there will be no more subscribers, and few will send the additional gui- nea to get their books : in which they will be wrong ; for there will be a greal deal of instruction in the work, I think highly of Campbell. In the first place, he has very good parts. In the second place, he has very ex- tensive reading ; not, perhaps, what is properly called learning, but history, politicks, and in short, that popu- lar knowledge which makes a man very useful. In the third place, he has learned much by what is called the Vox viva. He talks with a great many j^eople." Speaking of this gentleman, at Rasay, he told us, that he one day called on him, and they talked of TuWs Husbandry. Dr. Campbell said something. Dr. John- son began to dispute it. " Come, said Dr. Campbell, we do not want to get the better of one another : we want to increase each others ideas." — Dr. Johnson took it in good part, and the conversation then went on coolly and instructively. — His candour in relating this anec- dote does him much credit, and his conduct on that oc- casion proves how easily he could be persuaded to talk from a better motive than " for victory." Dr. Johnson here shewed so much of the spirit of a Highlander, that he won Sir Allan's heart : indeed, he has shewn it during the whole of our Tour. — One night in Col, he strutted about the room with a broad sword and target, and made a formidable appearance ; and, another night, I took the liberty to put a large blue bon- net on his head. His age, his size, and his bushy grey wig, with this covering on it, presented the image of a venerable Senachi : and, however unfavourable to the Lowland Scots, he seemed much pleased to assume the appearance of an ancient Caledonian. We only regret- ted that he could not be prevailed with to partake of the TO THE HEBRIDES. 3i: social glass. One of his arguments against drinking, appears to me not convincing. He urged, that, " in proportion as drinking makes a man different from ^hat he is before he^as drunk, it is bad ; because it has so far affected his reason."- — But may it not be answered, that a man may be altered by it^or the better ; that his spirits may be exhilarated, without his reason being af- fected ? On the general subject of drinking, however, I do not mean positively to take the other side. I am dubius, non improbus. In the evening, Sir Allan informed us that it was the custom of his house to have prayers every Sunday ; and Miss M'Lean read the evening service, in which we all joined. I then read Ogden's second and ninth Ser- mons on Prayer, which, with their other distinguished excellence, have the merit of being short. Dr. John- son said, that it was the most agreeable Sunday he had ever passed ; and it made such an impression on his mind, that he afterwards wrote the following Latip verses upon Inchkenneth : ""^-v Insula Sancti Kennethi. P^a quidem legio, sed re|lig-ione priorum Nota, Caledonias pan^ti^ur inSt aquas ; Voce ubi Cennethus populos domuisse leroces Dicitur, et vanos dedocuisse deos. Hue ego delatus placido per coerula cursu Scire locum volui quid daret ille novi. Illic Leniades humili regnabat in aula, Leniades magnis nobilitatus avis: Una duas habuit casa cum genitore puellas, Quas Amor undarum fingeret esse deas : Non tamen inculti gelidis latuere sub antris, Accola Danubii qualia saevus habet ; MoUia non deerant vacuae solatia vitae, Sive libros poscant otia, sive lyram. S S ♦ 3H JOURNAL OF A TOUR Luxerat ilia dies, legis gens docta supernsc Spes hominum ac curas cum procul esse jubet^ Pond inter strepitus sacri non rrmnera cultus Cessarunt ; pietas hie quoque cura fuit : Quid quod sacrifici versavit femina libvosj, Legitinias faciunt pectora pura preces. Quo vagor ulteiius ? quod ubique requivitur hie est ; Hie secura quies, hie et honestus amor. Monday J 18 th October. We agreed to pass this day with Sir Allan, and he engaged to have every thing in order for our voyage to- morrow. Being now soon to be separated from our amiable friend young Col, his merits were all remembered. At Ulva he had appeared in a new character, having given us a good prescription for a cold. On my mentioning him with warmth, Dr. Johnson said, " Col does every thing for us : we will erect a statue to Col." — " Yes, said I, and we will have him with his various attributes and characters, like Mercury, or any other of the hea- then gods. We will have him as a pilot; we will have him as a fisherman, as a hunter, as a husbandm^, as a physician." I this morning took a spade, and dug a little grave in the floor of a ruined chapel near Sir Allan M'Lean's house, in which I buried some human bones I found there. Dr. Johnson praised me for what I had done, though he owned, he could not have done it. He shewed in the chapel at Rasay his horror at dead men's bones. He shewed it again at Col's house. In the Charter-room there was a remarkably large shin-bone, which was said to have been a bone of John Garve, one to tHE HEBRIDES. 315 of the lairds. Dr. Johnson would not look at; but started away. At breakfast, I asked, " What is the reason that we are angry at a trader's having opulence ?" — Johnson. >< *' Why, sir, the reason is, (though I don't undertake to prove that there is a reason,) we see no qualities in trade that should entitle a man to superiority. We are not - angry at a soldier's getting riches, because we see that he possesses qualities which we have not. If a man re- turns from a battle, having lost one hand, and with the other full of gold, we feel that he deserves the gold; but we cannot think that a fellow, by sitting all day at a desk, is entitled to get above us." — Boswell. " But, sir, may we not suppose a merchant to be a man of an en- larged mind, such as Addison in the Spectator des- cribes Sir Andrew Freeport to have been?" — Johnson, " Why, sir, we may suppose any fictitious character. We may suppose a philosophical day-labourer, who is happy in reflecting that, by his labour, he contributes to the fertility of the earth, and to the support of his fellow- creatures ; but we find no such philosophical day- labourer. A merchant may, perhaps, be a man of an enlarged mind ; but there is nothing in trade connected with an enlarged mind." I mentioned that I had heard Dr. Solander say he was a Swedish Laplander. — Johnson. " Sir, I don't be- lieve he is a Laplander. The Laplanders are not much above four feet high. He is as tall as you ; and he has not the copper colour of a Laplander." — Boswell. " But what motive could he have to make himself a Lap- lander?" — Johnson. " Why, sir, he must either mean the word Laplander in a very extensive sense, or may mean a voluntary degradation of himself. ' For all my being the great man that you see me now, I was origi- 316 JOURNAL OF A TOUR nally a Barbarian ;' as if Burke should say, ' I came over a wild Irishman,' — which he might say in his pre- sent state of exaltation." Having expressed a desire to have an island like Inchkenneth, Dr. Johnson set himself to think what would be necessary for a man in such a situation. " Sir, I should build me a fortification, if I came to live here ; for, if you have it not, what should hinder a parcel of ruffians to land in the night, and carry off every thing you have in the house, which, in a remote country, would be more valuable than cows and sheep ? add to all this the danger of having your throat cut." — Bos- well. " I would have a large dog." — -Johnson. "So you may, sir ; but a large dog is of no use but to alarm." — He, however, I apprehend, thinks too lightly of the powerof that animal. I have heard him say, that he is afraid of no dog. " He would take him up by the hinder legs which would render him quite helpless, — and then knock his head against a stone, and beat out his brains." — Topham Beauclerk told me, that at his house in the country, two large ferocious dogs were fighting. Dr. Johnson looked steadily at them for a little while ; and then, as one would separate two little boys who are fool- ishly hurting each other, he ran up to them, and cuffed their heads till he drove them asunder. But few men have his intrepidity, Herculean strength, or presence of mind. Most thieves or robbers would be afraid to en- counter a mastiff. I observed, that, when young Col talked of the lands belonging to his family, he always said, " ?;2y lands." For this he had a plausible pretence ; for he told me, there has been a custom in this family, that the laird re- signs the estate to the eldest son when he comes of age, reserving tohimself only a certain life-rent. He said, it was TO THE HEBRIDES. 317 a voluntary custom ; but I think I found an instance in the charter-room that there was such an obligation in a contract of marriage. If the custom was vohuitary, it was only curious ; but if founded on obligation, it might be danp-erous ; for I have been told, that in Otaheit6, whenever a child is born, (a son, I think,) the father loses his right to the estate and honours, and that this unnatu- ral, o' richer' absurd custom, occasions the murder of many ciiildren. Young Col told us he could run down a greyhound ; " for, (s lid he,) the dog runs himself out of breath, by going too quick, and then I get up with him." I ac- counted for his advantage over the dog, by remarking that Col had the faculty of reason, and knew how to mo- derate his pace, which the dog had not sense enough to do. Dr. Johnson said, " He is a noble animal. He is as complete an islander as the mind can figure. He is a farmer, a sailor, a hunter, a fisher : he will run you down a dog : if any man has a tail, it is Col. He is hospitable ; and he has an intrepidity of talk, whether he understands the subject or not. I regret that he is not more intellectual." Dr. Johnson observed, that there was nothing of which he would not undertake to persuade a French- man in a foreign country. " I'll carry a Frenchman to St. Paul's Church-yard, and I'll tell him, 'by our law, you may walk half round the church ; but, if you walk round the whole, you will be punished capitally :' and he will believe me at once. Now, no Englishman would readily swallow such a thing : he would go and inquire of somebody else," — The Frenchman's credu- lity, I observed, must be owing to his being accustom- ed to implicit subralission ; whereas every Englishman 318 JOURNAL OF A TOUR reasons upon the laws of his country, and instructs his representatives, who compose the legislature. This day was passed in looking at a small island adjoining Inchkenneth, which afforded nothing worthy of observation ; and in such social and gay entertain- ments as our little society could furnish. Tuesday y \9th October. After breakfast we took leave of the young ladies, and of our excellent companion Col, to whom we had been so much obliged. He had now put us under the care of his Chief; and was to hasten back to Sky. We parted from him with very strong feelings of kind- ness and gratitude ; and we hoped to have had some future opportunity of proving to him the sincerity of what we felt; but in the following year he was un- fortunately lost in the Sound between Ulva and Mull ; and this imperfect memorial, joined to the high honour of being tenderly and respectfully mentioned by Dr. Johnson, is the only return which the uncertainty of human events has permitted us to make to this deserv- in a: vounsf man. Sir Allan, who obligingly undertook to accompany us to Icoimkill, had a strong good boat, with four stout rowers. We coasted along Mull till we reached Gri- boTij where is what is called Mackinnon's cave, com- pared with which that at Ulinish is inconsiderable. It is in a rock of a great height close to the sea. Upon the left of its entrance there is a cascade, almost perpen- dicular from the top to the bottom of the rock. There is a tradition that it was conducted thither artificially, to supply the inhabitants of the cave with water. Dr. Johnson gave no credit to this tradition. As, on the TO THE HEBRIDES. 319 one hand, his faith in the Christian reHgion is firmly founded upon good grounds ; so, on the other, he is incredulous when there is no sufficient reason for be- , lief; being in this respect just the reverse of modern in- fidels, who, however nice and scrupulous in weighing the evidences of religion, are yet often so ready to be- lieve the most absurd and improbable tales of another nature, that Lord Hailes well observed, a good essay might be written Sur la credulite des Incredules. The height of this cave I cannot tell with any tole- rable exactness : but it seemed to be very lofty, and to be a pretty regular arch. We penetrated, by candle- light, a great way ; by our measurement, no less than four hundred and eighty-five feet. Tradition says, that a piper and twelve men once advanced into this cave, nobody can tell how far ; and never returned. At the distance to which we proceeded the air was quite pure; for the candle burned freely, without the least appear- ance of the flame growing globular ; but as we had only one, wc thought it dangerous to venture further, lest, should it have been extinguished, we should have had no means of ascertaining whether we could remain without danger. Dr. Johnson said, this was the great- est natural curiosity he had ever seen. We saw the island of StafFa, at no very great dis- tance, but could not land upon it, the surge was so high on its rocky coast. Sir Allan, anxious for the honour of Mull, was still talking of its rvoods, and pointing them out to Dr. John- son, as appearing at a distance on the skirts of that island, as we sailed along. — Johnson. " Sir, I saw at Tobermorie what they called a wood, which I unlucki- ly took for heath. If you shew me what I shall take iorfurze^ it will be something." i20 JOURNAL OF A TOUR In the afternoon we went ashore oil the coast of Mull, and partook of a cold repast, which we carried with us. We hoped to have procured some rum or brandy for our boatmen and servants, from a publick- house near where we landed ; but unfortunately a fune- ral a few days before had exhausted all their store. Mr. Campbell however, one of the Duke of Argyle's tacksmen, who lived in the neighbourhood, on receiv- ing a message from Sir Allan, sent us a liberal supply. We continued to coast along Mull, and passed by Nuns' Island, which, it is said, belonged to the nuns of Icolmkill, and from which, we were told, the stone for the buildings there was taken. As we sailed along by moon-light, in a sea somewhat rough, and often be- tween black and gloomy rocks. Dr. Johnson said, " If this be not roving among the Hebrides^ nothing is." — The repetition of words which he had so often previ- ously used, made a strong impression on my imagina- tion ; and by a natural course of thinking, led me to consider how our present adventures would appear to me at a future period. I have often experienced, that scenes through which a man had passed, improve by lying in the memory : they grow mellow. Acti labor es sunt jucundL This may be owing to comparing them with present listless ease. Even harsh scenes acquire a softness by length of time ; and some are like very loud sounds, which do not please, or at least do not please so much, till you are removed to a certain distance. They may be compared to strong coarse pictures, which will not bear to be viewed near. Even pleasing scenes improve by time, and seem more exquisite in recollection, than when they were present; if they have not faded to dimness in the memory. Perhaps, there is so much TO THE HEBRIDES. 321 evil, in every human enjoyment, when present, — so much dross mixed with it, that it requires to be refin- ed by time ; and yet I do not see why time should not melt away the good and the evil in equal proportions ; —why the shade should decay, and the light remain in preservation. After a tedious sail, which, by our following various turnings of the coast of Mull, was extended to about forty miles, it gave us no small pleasure to perceive a light in the village at Icolmkill, in which almost all the inhabitants of the island live, close to where the ancient buildings stood. As we approached the shore, the tower of the cathedral, just discernible in the air, was a picturesque object. When we had landed upon the sacred place, which, as long as I can remember, I had thought on with vene- ration. Dr. Johnson and I cordially embraced. We had long talked of visiting Icolmkill ; and, from the lateness of the season,;., were at times very doubtful whether we should be able to effect our purpose. To have seen it, even alone, would have given me great satisfaction ; but the venerable scene was rendered much more pleas- ing by the company of my great and pious friend, who was no less affected by it than I was ; and who has de- scribed the impressions it should make on the mind, with such strength of thought, and energy of language, that I shall quote his words, as conveying my own sen- sations much more forcibly than I am capable of doing : " WE were now treading that illustrious Island, which was once the luminary of the Caledonian regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of religion. To abstract the mind froni all local emotion would be T t 322 JOURNAL OF A TOUR impossible, if it were endeavoured, and would be foolish if it were possible. Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses, whatever makes the past, the dis- tant, or the future, predominate over the present, ad- vances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Far from me, and from my friends, be such frigid philosophy as may conduct us indifferent and unmoved over any ground which has been dignified by wisdom, bravery, or virtue. That man is little to be envied, whose pa- triotism would not gain force upon the plain of Mara- thon^ or whose piety would not grow warmer among the ruins of lona .'"* Upon hearing that Sir Allan M'Lean was arrived, the inhabitants, who still consider themselves as the peo- ple of M'Lean, to whom the island formerly belonged, though the Duke of Argyle has at present possession of it, ran eagerly to him. We were accommodated this ni^ht in a large barn, the island affording no lodging that we should have liked so well. Some good hay was strewed at one end of it, to form a bed for us upon which we lay with our clothes on ; and we were furnished with blankets from the vil- lage. Each of us had a portmanteau for a pillow. When I awaked in the morning, and looked round me, I could not help smiling at the idea of the chief of the M 'Leans, the great English Moralist, and myself, lying thus ex- ' tended in such a situation. * Had our Toor produced nothing else but this sublime passage, the wcVld must have acknowledged that it was not made in vain. The present respectable i^resident of the Royal Society was so much struck on reading it, that he clasped his hands ;i||gether, and remained for some time in an attitude of silent ad- miration, dif • -'41 4 TO THE HEBRIDES, 323 Wednesday^ 20th October. Early in the morning we surveyed the remains of antiquity at this place, accompanied by an illiterate fellow, as Cicerone^ who called himself a descendant of a cousin of Saint Columba, the founder of the religious establishment here. As I knew that many persons had already examined them, and as I saw Dr. Johnson in- specting and measuring several of the ruins of which he has since given so full an account, my mind was qui- escent ; and T resolved to stroll among them at my ease, to take no trouble to investigate minutely, and only re- ceive the general impression of solemn antiquity, and the particular ideas of such objects as should of them- selves strike my attention. We walked from the monastery of Nuns to the great church or cathedral, as they call it, along an old broken causeway. They Jold us, that this had been a street ; and that therfe were good houses built on each side. Dr. Johnson doubted if it was any thing more than a paved road for the nuns. The convent of Monks, the great church, Oran's chapel, and four other chapels, are still to be discerned. But I must own that Icolmkill did not answer my expectations ; for they were high, from what I had read of it, and still more from what I had heard and thought of it, from my earliest years. Dr. Johnson said, it came up to his expectations, because he ha^l taken his impression from an account of it subjoined to Sacheverel's History of the Isle of Man, where it is said, there is not much to be seen here. We were both disappointed, when we were shewn what are called the monuments of the kings of Scotland, Ireland and Den- mark, and of a king of France. There are only some grave-stones flat on the earth, and we could see no in- % 324 JOURNAL OF A TOUR scriptioHS, How far short was this of marble monu- ments, like those in Westminster-Abbey, which I had imagined here ! The grave- stones of Sir Allan M'Lean's famity, and of that of M'Quarrie, had as good an appearance as the royal grave-stones ; if they were royal, we doubted. My easiness to give credit to what I heard in the course of our Tour was too great. Dr. Johnson's pecu- liar accuracy of investigation detected much traditional fiction, and many gross mistakes. It is not to be won- dered at, that he was provoked by people carelessly tell- ing him, with the utmost readiness and confidence, what he found, on questioning them a little more, was errone- ous. Of this there were innumerable instances. I left him and Sir Allan at breakfast in our barn, and stole back again to the cathedral, to indulge in solitude and devout meditation. While contemplating the ve- nerable ruins, I reflected with much satisfaction, that the solemn scenes of piety never lose their sanctity and influence, though the cares and follies of life may pre- vent us from visiting them, or may even make us fancy that their effects are only '* as yesterday, when it is past," and never again to be perceived. I hoped, that, ever after having been in this holy place, I should maintain an exemplary conduct. One has a strange propensity to fix upon some point of time from whence a better course of life may begin. Being desirous to visit the opposite shore of the island, where Saint Columba is said to have landed, I procured a horse from one M'GinniSj who ran along as my guide. The M'Ginnises are said to be a branch of the clan of M'Lean. Sir Alhm had been told that this man had refused to send him some rum, at which the knight was in great indignation. " You rascal ! (said t TO THE HEBRIDES. 325 he,) don't you know that I can hang you, if I please ?" — Not adverting to the Chieftain's power over his clan, I imagined that Sir Allan had known of some capital crime that the fellow had committed, which he could disco- ver, and so get him condemned ; and said, "How so?" ■ — "Why, (said sir Allan,) are they not all my people ?" — Sensible of my inadvertancy, and most willing to con- tribute what I could towards the continuation of feudal authority. " Very true," said I. — Sir Allan went on r " Refuse to send rum to me, you rascal! Don't you know that, if I order you to go and cut a man's throat, }''Ou are to do it?" — " Yes, an't please your honour ! and my oAvntoo, and hang myself too." — The poor fel- low denied that he had refused to send the rum. His making these professions was not merely a pretence in presence of his Chief ; for after he and I were out of Sir Allan's hearing, he told me, " Had he sent his dog for the rum, I would have given it : I would cut my bones for him.'*-^ — It was very remarkable to find such an attachment to a Chief, though he had then no con- nection with the island, and had not been there for four- teen years. — Sir Allan, by way of upbraiding the fellow, said, " I believe you are a CamphelV The place which I went to see is about two miles from the village. They call it P or ta-wherry, from the wherry in which Columba came ; though, when they shew the length of his vessel, as marked on the beach by two heaps of stones, they say, " Here is the length of the Currach,'''' using the Erse word. Icolmkill is a fertile island. The inhabitants export some cattle and grain ; and, I v/as told, they import nothing but iron and salt. They are industrious, and make their own woollen and linen cloth ; and thev brew 326 JOURNAL OF A TOUR a good deal of beer, which we did not find in any of the other islands. We set sail again about mid-day, and in the even- ing landed on Mull, near the house of the Reverend Mr. Neil M'Leod,who, having been informed of our coming, by a message from Sir Allan, came out to meet us. We were this night very agreeably entertained at his house. Dr. Johnson observed to me, that he was the cleanest- headed man that he had met with in the Western islands. He seemed to be well acquainted with Dr. Johnson's writings, and courteously said, " I have been often obliged to you, though I never had the pleasure of see- ing you before." He told us, he had lived for some time in St. Kilda, under the tuition of the minister or catechist there ; and had there first read Horace and Virgil. The scenes which they describe must have been a strong contrast to the dreary waste around him. Thursday^ 'ULYst October. This morning the subject of politicks was intro- duced. — Johnson. " Pulteney was as paltry a fellow as could be. He was a Whig, who pretended to be honest; and you know it is ridiculous for a Whig to pretend to be honest. He cannot hold it out." — He called Mr. Pitt a meteor ; Sir Robert Walpole a fixed star. — He said, " It is wonderfulto think that all the force of go- vernment was required to prevent Wilkes from being chosen the chief magistrate of London, though the li- verymen knew he would rob their shops, — knew he would debauch their daughters,* * I think it incumbent on me to make so;T)e observation on this strong sati- rlcal sally on my classical coi-npanion, Mr. Wilkes. Reporting it lately from TO THE HEBRIDES. 327 Boswell. " The History of England is so strange, that, if it were not so well vouched as it is, it would hardlv be credible." — Johnson. " Sir, if it were told as shortly, and with as little preparation for introducing the different events, as the History of the Jewish Kings, it would be equally liable to objections of improbabili- ty." — Mr. M'Leod was much pleased with the justice and novelty of the thought. — Dr. Johnson illustrated what he had said, as follows : " Take, as an instance, Charles the First's concessions to his parliament, which were greater and greater, in proportion as the parliament grew more insolent, and less deserving of trust. Had these concessions been related nakedly, without any de- tail of the circumstances which generally led to them, they would not have been believed." ' Sir Allan M'Lean bragged, that Scotland had the ad- vantage of England, by its having more water. Johnson. " Sir, we would not have your water, to take the vile bogs which produce it. You have too much ! A man who is drowned has more water than either of us ;" — and then he laughed. — (But this was surely robust sophis- mpmpry, in his presence, I expressed it thus: — " They knew he would rob their shops, if he durst: they knew he would debauch their daughters, if he could;'" which according to the French phrase, may be said rencherir on Dr. Johnson; bat on^looking into my Journal, I found it as above, and would by no means make any addition. Mr. Wilkes received both readings with a good humour that I cannot enough admire. Indeed both he and I (as, with respect to myself, the reader has more than once had occasion to observe in the course of this Jour- nal,) are too fond of a bon-mot, not to relish it, though we should ourselves be the object of it. Let me add, in justice to the gentleman here mentioned, that at a subsequent period, he was elected chief magistrate of London, and discharged the duties of that high office with great honour to himself, and advantage to the city. — Some years before Dr. Johnson died, I was fortunate enoughiito bring him and Mr. Wilkes together; the consequence of which was, that they were ever afterwards on easy aiKl not unfriendly terms. The particulars I shall have great pleasure Ju relating at large in my Life of Dr. Joh^ison. S2S JOURNAL OF A TOUR ■^ '«'fi try ; for the people of taste in England, who have seen Scotland, own that its variety of rivers and lakes makes it naturally more beautiful than England, in that res- pect.) — Pursuing his victory over Sir Allan, he pro- ceeded : " Your country consists of two things, stone and water. There is, indeed, a little earth above the stone in some places, but a very little ; and the stone is always appearing. It is like a man in rags ; the na- ked skin is still peeping out.'' He took leave of Mr. M'Leod, saying, " Sir, I thank you for your entertainment, and your conversa- tion." Mr. Campbell, who had been so polite yesterday, came this morning on purpose to breakfast with us, and very obligingly furnished us with horses to pro- ceed on our journey to Mr. M'Lean's of Lochbuy, where we v\'ere to pass the night. We dined at the house of Dr. Alexander M'Lean, another physician in Mull, who was so much struck with the uncommon conversation of Dr. Johnson, that he observed to me, " This man is just a hogshead of sense." Dr. Johnson said of the Turkish Spy^ which lay in the room, that it told nothing but what every body might have known at that time ; and that what was good in it, did not pay yoh for the trouble of reading to find it. After a very tedious ride, through what appeared to me the most gloomy and desolate country I had ever beheld, we arrived, between seven and eight o'clock, at Moy^ the seat of the Laird of Lochbuy. — Buy^ in Erse, signifies yellow, and I at first imagined that the loch or branch of the sea here, was thus denomina- ted, in the same manner as the Red Sea, but I after- TO THE HEBRIDES. 32^ wards learned that it derived its name from a hill above it, which, being of a yellowish hue, has the epi- thet of Buy. We had heard much of Lochbuy's being a great roaring braggadocio, a kind of Sir John Falstaff, both in size and manners; but we found that they had swelled him up to a fictitious size, and clothed him with imaginary qualities.— Col's idea of him was equal- ly extravagant, though very different : he told us, he was quite a Don Quixote ; and said, he would give a great deal to see him and Dr. Johnson together. The truth is, that Lochbuy proved to be only a bluff, come- \y, noisy old gentleman, proud of his hereditary con- sequence, and a very hearty and hospitable landlord. Lady Lochbuy was sister to Sir Allan M'Lean, but much older. He said to me, " They are quite Ante- diluvians:' Being told that Dr. Johnson did not hear well, Lochbuy bawled out to him, " Are you of the Johnstons of Glencro, or of Ardnamurchan ?" — Dr. Johnson gave him a significant look, but made no an- swer ; and I told Lochbuy that he was not Johns^ow, but Johnjo72, and that he was an Englishman. Lochbuy some years ago tried to prove himself a weak man, liable to imposition, or as Ave term it in Scot- land, a facile man, in order to set aside a lease which he had granted ; but failed in the attempt. On my mentioning this circumstance to Dr. Johnson, he seem- ed much surprised that such a suit was admitted by the Scottish law, and observed, that " in England no man is allowed to stultify himself"* Sir Allan, Lochbuy, and I, had the conversation * This maxim, however, hasbeea controverted. See Blackstone's Commen- 1 ARIES, Vol. 11. p. 292 ; and the authorities there quoted. U U 330 ^JOURNAL OF A TOUR chiefly to ourselves to-night : Dr. Johnson, being ex- tremely weary, went to bed soon after supper. Friday y 22d October. Before Dr. Johnson came to breakfast. Lady Loch- buy said, •'' he was a dungeon of wit ;" a very common phrase in Scotland to express a profoundness of intellect, though he afterwards told me, that he never had heard it. She proposed that he should have some cold Sheep's- head for breakfast. Sir Allan seemed displeased at his sister's vulgarity, and wondered how such a thought should come into her head. From a mischievous love of sport, I took the lady's part ; and very gravely said, *' I think it is but fair to give him an offer of it. If he does not choose it, he may let it alone." — " I think so," said the lady, looking at her brother with an air of vic- tory. Sir Allan, finding the matter desperate, strutted about the room, and took snuff. When Dr. Johnson came in, she called to him, " Do you choose any cold sheep's-head, sir?" — "No, Madam," said he, with a tone of surprise and anger. — " It is here, sir," said she, supposing he had refused it to save the trouble of bring- ing it in. They thus went on at cross purposes, til! he confirmed his refusal in a manner not to be misun- derstood ; while I sat quietly by, and enjoyed my suc- cess. After breakfast, we surveyed the old castle, in the pit or dungeon of which Lochbuy had some years be- fore taken upon him to imprison several persons ; and though he had been fined in a considerable sum by the Court of Justiciary, he was so little affected by it, that while we were examining the dungeon, he said to me, with a smile, " Your father knows something of this;" TO THE HEBRIDES. 33 i (alluding to my father's having sat as one of the judges on his trial.) Sir Allan whispered me, that the laird could not be persuaded, that he had lost his heritable jurisdiction. We then set out for the ferry, by which we were to cross to the main land of Argyleshire. Lochbuy and Sir Allan accompanied us. We were told much of a war-saddle, on which this reputed Don Quixote used to be mounted ; but we did not see it, for the young laird had applied it to a less noble purpose, having taken it to Falkirk fair with a drove of black cattle. We bade adieu to Lochbuy, and to our very kind conductor Sir Allan M'Lean, on the shore of Mull, and then got into the ferry-boat, the bottom of which was strewed with branches of trees or bushes, upon which we sat. We had a good day, and a fine passage, and in the evening landed at Oban, where we found a tole- rable inn. After having been so long confined at differ- ent times in islands, from which it was always uncertain when we could get away, it was comfortable to be now on the main land, and to know that, if in health, we might get to any place in Scotland or England in a cer» tain number of days. Here we discovered from the conjectures which were formed, that the people on the main land were en- tirely ignorant of our motions ; for in a Glasgow news- paper we found a paragraph, which, as it contains a just and well-turned compliment to my illustrious friend, I shall here insert : " We are well assured that Doctor Johnson is con- " fined by tempestuous weather to the isle of Sky ; it " being unsafe to venture, in a small boat upon such a " stormy surge as is very common there at this time of '^ the year. Such a philosopher, detained on an almost 332 JOURNAL OF A TOUR " barren island, resembles a whale left upon the. strand- " The latter will be welcome to every body, on account "of his oil, his bone, &c. and the other will charm " his companions, and the rude inhabitants, with his *' superior knowledge and wisdom, calm resignation, " and unbounded benevolence." - Saturday^ 23d Octobe?'. After a good night's rest, we breakfasted at our lei- sure. We talked of Goldsmith's Traveller, of which Dr. Johnson spoke highly ; and, while I was helping him on with his great coat, he repeated from it the character of the British nation, which he. did with such energy, that the tear started into his eye : " Stern o'er each bosom reason holds her state. " With daring aims irregularly great, " Pride in their port, defiance in their eye, " I see the lords of humankind pass by, " Intent on high designs, a thoughtful band, " By forms unfashion'd, fresh from nature's hand ; " Fierce in their native hardiness of soul, " True to imagin'd right, above control, " While ev'n the peasant boasts these rights to scan, " And learns to venerate himself as man." We could get but one bridle here, which, according to the maxim detur digniori, was appropriated to Dr. Johnson's sheltie. I and Joseph rode with halters. We crossed in a ferry-boat a pretty wide lake, and on tlie further side of it, close by the shore, found a hut for our inn. We were much wet. I clianged my clothes in part, and was at pains to get myself well dried. Dr. Johnson resolutely kept on all his clothes, wet as they TO THE HEBRIDES. 333 were, letting them steam before the smoky turf fire. I thought him in the wrong ; but his firmness was, per» haps, a species of heroism. I remember but little of our conversation. I men- tioned Shenstone's saying of Pope, that he had the art of condensing sense more than any body. Dr. John- son said, " It is not true, sir. There is more sense in a line of Cowley than in a page (or a sentence, or ten lines, — I am not quite certain of the very phrase) of Pope." He maintained, that Archibald, Duke of Argyle, was a narrow man. I wondered at this ; and observed, that his building so great a house at Inveraray was not like a narrow man. " Sir, (said he,) when a narrow man has resolved to build a house, he builds it like another man. But Archibald, Duke of Argyle was narrow in his ordinary expences, in his quotidian expences." The distinction is very just. It is in the ordinary expences of life that a man's liberality or narrowness is to be discovered. — I never heard the word quotidian in this sense, and I imagined it to be a word of Dr. John- son's own fabrication ; but I have since found it in Toung^s Night Thoughts y (Night fifth,) "Death's a destroyer of quotidian prey," and in my friend's Dictionary, supported by the au- thorities of Charles I, and Dr. Donne. It rained very hard as we journeyed on after dinner. The roar of torrents from the mountains, as we passed alonsr in the dusk, and the other circumstances attend- ing our ride this evening, have been mentioned with so much animation by Dr. Johnson, that I shall not attempt to say any thing on the subject. 334 K^UllNAL OF A TOUR We got at night to Inveraray, where we found an excellent inn. Even here, Dr. Johnson would not change his wet clothes. The prospect of good accommodation cheered us much. We supped well ; and after supper, Dr. John- son, whom I had not seen taste any fermented liquor during all our travels, called for a gill of whisky. " Come, (said he,) let me know what it is that makes a Scotchman happy !" He drank it all but a drop, which I begged leave to pour into my glass, that I might say we had drunk whisky together. I proposed Mrs. Thrale should be our toast. He would not have her drunk in whiskey, but rather " some insular lady ;" so we drank one of the ladies whom we had lately left. — He owned to-night, that he got as good a room and bed as at an English inn. I had here the pleasure of finding a letter from home, which relieved me from the anxiety I had suffered, jn consequence of not having received any account of my family for many weeks. I also found a letter from Mr. Garrick, which was a regale as agreeable as a pine- apple would be in a dessert. He had favoured me with his correspondence for many years ; and when Dr. Johnson and I were at Inverness, I had written to him as follows : :, ^ ir 1 o' Inverness, " My dear i5ir, Sunday, 29 August, 1773. " HERE I am, and Mr. Samuel Johnson actu- ally with me. We were a night at Fores, in coming to which, in the dusk of the evening, we passed over the bleak and blasted heath where Macbeth met the witches. Your old preceptor repeated, with much solemnity, the speech — « How far is't called to Fores? What are these, ■r' So wither'd and so wild in their attire," Sec TO THE HEBRIDES. 335 This day we visited the ruins of Macbeth's castle at Inverness. I have had great romantick satisfaction in seeing Johnson upon the classical scenes of Shakspeare in Scotland ; which I really looked upon as almost as im- probable as that * Birnam wood should come to Dunsi- nane.' Indeed, as I have always been accustomed to view him as a permanent London object, it would not be much more wonderful to me to see St. Paul's church, moving along where we now are. As yet we have tra- velled in post-chaises ; but to-morrow we are to mount ^6n horseback, and ascend into the mountains by Fort Augustus, and so on to the ferry, where we are to cross to Sky. We shall see that island fully, and then visit some more of the Hebrides ; after which we are to land in Argyleshire, proceed by Glasgow to Auchinleck, re- pose there a competent time, and then return to Edin- burgh, from whence the Rambler will depart for old England again, as soon as he finds it convenient. Hi- therto, we have had a very prosperous expedition. I flatter myself, servetur ad imum, qualis ab incepto pro- cesserit. He is in excellent spirits, and I have a rich journal of his conversation. Look back Davy,^ to Lichfield, — run up through the time that has elapsed since you first knew Mr. Johnson, — and enjoy with me his present extraordinary Tour. I could not resist the impulse of writing to you from this place. The situa- tion of the old castle corresponds exactly to Shakspeare's description. While we were there to-day, it happened oddly, that a raven perched upon one of the chimney- tops, and croaked. Then I in my turn repeated — * I took the liberty of giving this familiar appellation to my celebrated friend, to bring in a more lively manner to his remembrance the period whea he was Dr. Johnson's plipil. 336 JOURNAL OF A TOUR " The raven himself is hoarse, *' That croaks the fatal enterance of Duncan, " Under my battlements." " I wish you had been with us. Think what en thusiastick happiness I shall have to see Mr. Samuel Johnson walking among the romantick rocks and woods of my ancestors at Auchinleck ! Write to me at Edin- burgh. You owe me his verses on great George and tuneful Gibber, and the bad verses which led him to make his fine ones on Philips the musician. Keep your promise, and let me have them. I offer my very best compliments to Mrs. Garrick, and ever am Your warm admirer and friend, " To David Garrick, Esq ; t t5 17 ^ James 15oswell. London. His answer was as follows : ^' Dear Sir, Hampton,^Sept. 14, " YOU stole away from London, and left us all in the lurch ; for we expected you one night at the club, and knew nothing of your departure. Had I paid you what I owed you, for the book you bought for me, I should only have grieved for the loss of your company, and slept with a quiet conscience ; but, wounded as it is, it must remain so till I see you again, though I am sure our good friend Mr. Johnson will discharge the debt for me, if you will let him. — Your account of your journey to Fores, the raven, old castle, &c. &c. made me half mad. Are you not rather too late in the year for fine weather, which is the life and soul of seeing places? — I hope your pleasure will continue quails ah incepto, &:c. " Your friend threatens me much. I onlv TO THE HEBRIDES. 537 wish that lie would put his threats in execution, and, if he prints his play, I will forgive him. I remember he complained to you, that his bookseller called for the money for some copies of his , which I subscribed for, and that I desired him to call again. — The truth is, that my wife was not at home, and that for weeks to- gether I have not ten shillings in my pocket. — However, had it been otherwise, it was not so great a crime to draw his poetical vengeance upon me. — 1 despise all that he can do, and am glad that I can so easily get rid of him and his ingratitude. — I am hardened both to abuse and ingratitude. " You, I am sure, will no more recommend your poetasters to my civility and good offices. Shall I recommend to you a Play of Eschylus, (the Prometheus,) published and translated by poor old Mo- rell, who is a good scholar, and an acquaintance of mine ? It will be but half a guinea, and your name shall be put in the list I am making for him. You will be in very good company. '• Now for the epitaphs ! \_These, together with the verses on George the Se- cond, and Colley Gibber^ as his Poet Laureat, of ■which imperfect copies are gone about^ will appear in my Life of Dr. Johnson.'] " I have no more paper, or I should have said more to you. My love and respects to Mr. Johnson. " Yours ever, D. G ARRICK. " I can't write. I have the gout in my hand." " To James Boswdl, Esq. Edinburgh.''^ X X 338 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Sunday^ 24ith October. We passed the forenoon calmly and placidly. I prevailed on Dr. Johnson to read aloud Ogden's sixth Sermon on Prayer, which he did with a distinct expres- sion, and pleasing solemnity. He praised my favourite preacher, his elegant language, and remarkable acute- ness ; and said, he fought infidels with their own wea- pons. As a specimen of Ogden's manner, I insert the fol- lowing passage from the sermon which Dr. Johnson now read. The preacher, after arguing against that vain philosophy which maintains, in conformity with the hard principle of eternal necessity, or unchangeable predetermination, that the only effect of prayer for others, although we are exhorted to pray for them, is to pro- duce good dispositions in ourselves towards them ; thus expresses himself: " A plain man may be apt to ask, But if this then, " though enjoined in the holy scriptures, is to be my " real aim and intention, when I am taught to pray for " other persons, why is it that I do not plainly so ex- " press it ? Why is not tlie form of the petition brought *' nearer to the meaning ? Give them, say I to our " heavenly father, what is good. But this, I am to " understand, will be as it will be, and is not for me to " alter. What is it then that I am doing? I am de- '• siring to become charitable myself; and why may I " not plainly say so ? Is there shame in it, or impiety f " The wish is laudable : why should I form designs to " hide it ? " Or is it, perhaps, better to be brought about by " indirect means, and in this artful manner ? Alas I " who is it that I would impose on ? From whom can TO THE HEBRIDES. 339 '' it be, ill this commerce, that I desire to hide any ** thing ? When, as my Saviour commands me, I have ^' entered into my closet^ and shut my door ^ there are but " two parties privy to my devotions, God and my ovi^n *' heart; which of the two am I deceiving V He wished to have more books, and, upon inquiring if there were any in the house, was told that a waiter had some, which were brought to him ; but I recollect none of them, except Hervey'^s Meditations. He thought slightingly of this admired book. He treated it with ridicule, and would not allow even the scene of the dying Husband and Father to be pathetick. I am not an impartial judge ; for Hervey'^s Meditations en- gaged my affections in my early years. — He read a pas- sage concerning the moon, ludicrously, and shewed how easily he could, in the same style, make reflections on that planet, the very reverse of Hervey's, represent- ing her as treacherous to mankind. He did this with much humour; but I have not preserved the particulars. He then indulged a playful fancy, in making a Medita- tion on a Puddings of which I hastily wrote down, in his presence, the following note ; which, though imperfect, may serve to give my readers some idea of it. Meditation on a Pudding. " LET us seriously reflect of what a pudding is composed. It is composed of flpur that once waved in the golden grain, and drank the dews of the morning ; of milk pressed from the swelling udder by the gentle hand of the beauteous milk-maid, whose beauty and in- nocence might have recommended a worse draught ; who, while she stroked the udder, indulged no ambitious thoughts of wandering in palaces, formed no plans for the destruction of her fellow-creatures : milk, which is drawn from the cow, that useful animal, that eats the 340 JOURNAL OF A TOUR grass of the field, and supplies us with that which made the greatest part of the food of mankind in the age which the poets have agreed to call golden. - It is made with an egg, that miracle of nature, which the theoretical Burnet has compared to creation. An Ggg contains water within its beautiful smooth surface ; and an un- formed mass, by the incubation of the parent, becomes a regular animal, furnished with bones and sinews, and covered with feathers. — Let us consider; can there be more wanting to complete the Meditation on a Pudding? If more is wanting, more may be found. It contains salt, which keeps the sea from putrefaction : salt, which is made the image of intellectual excellence, contri- butes to the formation of a pudding." In a Magazine I found a saying of Dr. Johnson's, something to this purpose ; that the happiest part of a man's life is what he passes h^ing awake in bed in the morning. I read it to him. He said, " I may perhaps, have said this ; for nobody, at times, talks more laxly than I do." I ventured to suggest to him, that this was dangerous from one of his authority. I spoke of living in the country, and upon what footing one should be with neighbours. I observed that some people were afraid of being on too easy a footing with them, from an apprehension that their time would not be their own. He made the obvious remark, that itdependeti much on what kind of neighbours one has, whether it was desirable to be on an easy footing with them, or not. I mentioned a certain baronet, who told me, he never was happy in the country, till he was not on speaking terms with his neighbours, which he contrived in different ways to bring about. ' ' Lord (said he) stuck along ; but at last the fellow pounded my pigs, and then I got rid of him." — Johnson. TO THE HEBRIDES. 341 " Nay, sir, My Lord got rid of Sir John, and shewed how little he valued him, by putting his pigs in the pound." I told Dr. Johnson I was in some difficulty how to act at Inveraray. I had reason to think that the Duchess of Argyle disliked me, on account of my zeal in the Douglas cause; but the Duke of Argyle had always been pleased to treat me with great civility. They were now at the castle, which is a very short walk from our inn ; and the question was, whether I should go and pay my respects there. Dr. Johnson, to whom I had stated the case, was clear that I ought ; but, in his usual way, he was very shy of discovering a desire to be invited there himself. Though, from a conviction of the benefit of subordination to society, he has always shewn great respect to persons of high rank, when he happened to be in their company, yet his pride of character has ever made him guard against any appear- ance of courting the great. Besides, he was impatient to go to Glasgow, where he expected letters. At the same time he M^as, I believe, secretly not unwilling to have attention paid him by so great a Chieftain, and so exalted a nobleman. He insisted that I should not go to the castle this day before dinner, as it would look like seeking an invitation. " But, (said I,) if the duke invites us to dine with him to-morrow, shall we accept ?" — " Yes, sir ;". I think he said, " to be sure." But, he added, " He won't ask us !" — I mentioned, that I was afraid my company might be disagreeable to the duchess. He treated this objection with a manly disdain : " That^ sir, he must settle with his wife." — We dined well. I went to the castle just about the time when I supposed the ladies would be retired from dinner. I sent in my name ; and, being shewn in, found the amiable duke 342 JOURNAL OF A TOUR sitting at the head of his table with several gentlemen. I was most poHtely received, and gave his grace some particulars of the curious journey which I had been makifig with Dr. Johnson. When we rose from table, the duke said to me, " I hope you and Dr. Johnson will dine with us to-morrow." I thanked his grace ; but told him, my friend was in a great hurrj^ to get back to London. The duke, with a kind complacency, said, " He will stay one day : and I will take care he shall see this place to advantage." I said, I should be sure to let him know his grace's invitation. — As I was going away, the duke said, " Mr. Boswell, won't you have some tea ?" — I thought it best to get over the meeting with the duchess this night ; so respectfully agreed. I was conducted to the drawing-room by the duke, who announced my name ; but the duchess, who ^v^as sitting with her daughter, Lady Betty Hamilton, and some other ladies, took not the least notice of me. I should have been mortified at being thus coldly received by a lady of whom I, with the rest of the world, have al- ways entertained a very high admiration, had I not been consoled by the obliging attention of the duke. When I returned to the inn, I informed Dr. Johnson of the Duke of Argyle's invitation, with which he was much pleased, and readily accepted of it. — We talked of a violent contest w^hich was then carrying on, with a view to the next general election for Ayrshire ; where one of the candidates, in order to undermine the old and established interest, had artfully held himself out as a champion for the independency of the county against aristocratick influence, and had persuaded several gen- tlemen into a resolution to oppose every candidate who was supported by peers. — " Foolish fellows ! (said Dr. Johnson,) don't they see that they are as much depend- TO THE HEBRIDES. 34S ent upon the peers one way as the other. The peers have but to oppose a candidate, to ensure him success. It is said, the only way to make a pig go forward, is to pull him back by the tail. These people must be treat- ed like pigs." Monday^ 25th October. My acquaintance, the Reverend Mr. John M'Au- lay, one of the ministers of Inveraray, and brother to our good friend at Calder, came to us this morning, and accompanied us to the castle, where I presented Dr. Johnson to the Duke of Argyle. We were shewn through the house ; and I never shall forget the im- pression made upon my fancy by some of the ladies' maids tripping about in neat morning dresses. After seeing for a long time little but rusticity, their lively manner, and gay inviting appearance, pleased me so much that I thought, for the moment;, I could have been a knight-errant for them.* We then got into a low one-horse chair, ordered for us by the duke, in which we drove about the place. Dr. Johnson was much struck by the grandeur and elegance of this princely seat. He thought, however, the castle too low, and wished it had been a story higher. — He said, " W^hat I admire here, is the total defiance of expence." I had a particular pride in shewing him a great number of fine old trees, to com- pensate for the nakedness which had made such an impression on him on the eastern coast of Scotland. When we came in, before dinner, we found the duke and some gentlemen in the hall. Dr. Johnson * On reflection, at the distance of several years, I wonder that my venerable fellow-traveller should have read this passage without censuring my levity. 344 JOURNAL OF A TOUR took much notice of the large collection of arms, which are excellently disposed there. I told what he had said to Sir Alexander M'Donald, of his ancestors not suffer- ing their arms to rust. " Well, (said the doctor,) but let us be glad we live in times when arms may rust. We can sit to-day at his grace's table, without any risk of being attacked, and perhaps sitting down again wounded or maimed." The duke placed Dr. Johnson next himself at table. I was in fine spirits; and though sensible that I had the misfortune of not being in favour with the duchess, I was not in the least disconcerted, and offered her grace some of the dish that was before me. It must be owned that I was in the right to be quite unconcerned, if I could. I was the Duke of Ar- gyle's guest ; and I had no reason to suppose that he adopted the prejudices and resentments of the Duchess of Hamilton. I knew it w^s the rule of modern high life not to drink to any body ; but, that I might have the satisfac • tion for once to look the duchess in the face, with a glass in my hand, I with a respectful air addressed her, — " My Lady Duchess, I have the honour to drink your grace's good health." — I repeated the words audibly, and with a steady countenance. This was, perhaps, ra- ther too much ; but some allowance must be made for human feelings. The duchess was very attentive to Dr. Johnson. I know not how a middle state came to be mentioned. Her grace wished to hear him on that point. " Madam, (said he,) your own relation, Mr. Archibald Campbell, can tell you better about it than I can. He was a bishop of the nonjuring communion, and wrote a book upon the subject."* — He engaged to get it for her grace. * As this book is now become very scarce, I shall subjoin the title, which is curious : TO THE HEBRIDES. 345 He afterwards gave a full history of Mr. Archibald Campbell, which I am sorry I do not recollect particu- larly. He said, Mr. Campbell had been bred a violent *Whig, but afterwards " kept better company, and be- came a Tory." He said this with a smile, in pleasant allusion, as I thought, to the opposition between his own political principles and those of the duke's clan. He added, that Mr. Campbell, after the Revolution, was thrown into gaol on account of his tenets ; but, on ap- plication by letter to the old Lord Townshend, was re- leased : that he always spoke of his Lordship with great gratitude, saying, " though a TFhig, he had humanity." Dr. Johnson and I passed some time together, in June, 1784, at Pembroke college Oxford, with the Re- verend Dr. Adams, the master ; and I having express- ed a regret that my note relative to Mr. Archibald Campbell was imperfect, he was then so good as to write with his own hand, on the blank page of my Jour- nal opposite to that which contains what I have now mentioned, the following paragraph; which, however, is not quite so full as the narrative he gave at Inve- raray : " The Honourable Archibald Campbell was, I believe y " the nephew of the Marquis of Ar gyle. He began life " The Doctrines of a Middle State between Death and the Resurrection: Of " Prayers for the Dead : And the necessity of Purification ; plainly proved from " the Holy Scriptures, and the Writings of the Fathers of the Primitive Church: " And acknowledged by several learned Fathers and great Divines of the Church " of England and others since the Reformation. To which is added, an Appen- " dix concerning the Descent of the Soul of Christ into Hell, while his Body lay '• in the Grave. Together with the Judgment of the Reverefld Dr. Hickes con» " cerning this Book, so far as relates to a Middle State, particular Judgment, and *' Prayers for the Dead as it appeared in the first Edition. And a Manuscript of " the Right Reverend Bishop Overall upon the Subject of a Middle State, and «* never before printed. Also, a Preservative against several of the Errors of the '« Roman Church, in six small Treatises. By the Honourable Archibald Camp- " bell." Folio, 1721. y V 346 JOURNAL OF A TOUK *' by engaging in Monmouth's rebellion, and, to escape " the law, lived some time in Surinam. JVhen he re- " turned, he became zealous for episcopacy and monar- ^^ chy ; and at the Revolution adhered not only to the " Nonjurors, but to those who refused to communicate " with the Church of England, or to be present at any " Ivor ship where the usurper was mentioned as king He " was, I believe, more than once apprehended in the " reign of king William, and once at the accession of " George. He was the familiar friend of Hickes and " Nelson ; a man of letters, but injudicious ; and very " curious and inquisitive, but credulous. He lived in <' 1743, or 44, about 15 years old.'^ The subject of luxury was introduced. Dr. John- son defended it. " We have now (said he) a splendid dinner before us ; Which of all these dishes is un- wholesome ?" The duke asserted, that he had observ- ed the grandees of Spain diminished in their size by luxury. Dr. Johnson politely refrained from opposing directly an observation which the duke himself had made ; but said, " Man must be very different from other animals, if he is diminished by good living ; for the size of all other animals is increased by it." I made some remark that seemed to imply a belief in second sight. The duchess said, " I fancy you will be a Me- thodist.''^ — This was the only sentence her grace deign- ed to utter to me ; and I take it for granted, she thought it a good hit on my credulity in the Douglas cause. A gentleman in company, after dinner, was desired by the duke to go to another room, for a specimen of curious marble, which his grace wished to shew us. He brought a wrong piece, upon which the duke sent him back again. He could not refuse ; but, to avoid any appearance of servility, he whistled as he w^alked TO THE HEBRIDES. 347 out of the room, to show his independency. On my mentioning this afterwards to Dr. Johnson, he said, it was a nice trait of character. Dr. Johnson talked a great deal, and was so enter- taining, that Lady Betty Hamilton, after dinner, went and placed her chair close to his, leaned upon the back of it, and listened eagerly. It would have made a fine picture to have drawn the Sage and her at this time in their jseveral attitudes. He did not know, all the while, how much he was honoured. I told him afterwards. I never saw him so gentle and complaisant as this day. We went to tea. The duke and I walked up and down the drawing-room, conversing. The duchess still continued to shew the same marked coldness for me ; for which, though I suffered from it, I made every al- lowance, considering the very warm part that I had ta- ken for Douglas, in the cause in which she thought her son deeply interested. Had not her grace discovered some displeasure towards me, I should have suspected her of insensibility or dissimulation. .^ Her grace made Dr. Johnson come and sit by her, and asked him why he made his journey so late in the year. " Why, madam, (said he,) you know Mr. Bos- well must attend the Court of Sesdon, and it does not rise till the twelfth of August." — She said, with some sharpness, " I know nothing of Mr. Boswell." Poor Lady Lucy Douglas, to whom I mentioned this, ob- served, " She knew too much of Mr. Boswell." I shall make no remark on her grace's speech. I indeed felt it as rather too severe ; but when I recollected that my punishment was inflicted by so dignified a beauty, I had that kind of consolation which a man would feel who is strangled by a silken cord. Dr. Johnson was all atten- tion to her grace. He used afterwards a droll expres- 348 JOURNAL OF A TOUR sion, upon her enjoying the three titles of Hamilton, Brandon, and Argyle. Borrowing an image from the Turkish empire, he called her a Duchess with three tails. He was much pleased with our visit at the castle of Inveraray. The Duke of Argyle was exceedingly po- lite to him, and, upon his complaining of the shelties which he had hitherto ridden being too small fpr him, his grace told him he should be provided with a good horse to carry him next day. Mr. John M'Aulay passed the evening with us at our inn. When Dr. Johnson spoke of people whose principles were good, but whose practice was faulty, Mr. M'Aulay said, he had no notion of people being in earnest in their good professions, whose practice was not suitable. The Doctor grew warm, and said, " Sir, are you so grossly ignorant of human nature, as not to know that a man may be very sincere in good princi- ples, without having good practice ?" Df. Johnson was unquestionably in the right ; and whoever examines himself candidly, will be satisfied of it, though the inconsistency between principles and practice is greater in some men than in others. I recollect very little of this night's conversation. I am sorry that indolence came upon me towards the con- clusion of our journey, so that I did not write down what passed with the same assiduity as during the greatest part of it. Tuesday, 26 M October. Mr. M'Aulay breakfasted with us, nothing hurt or dismayed by his last night's correction. Being a man of good sense, he had a just admiration of Dr. Johnson, TO THE HEBRIDES. 349 Either yesterday morning or this, I communicated to Dr. Johnson, from Mr. M'Aulay's information, the news that Dr. Beattie had got a pension of two hundred pounds a year. He sat up in his bed, clapped his hands, and cried, " O brave we !" — a pecuhar exclamation of his when he rejoices.* As we sat over our tea, Mr. Home's Tragedy of Douglas was mentioned. I put Dr. Johnson in mind, that once, in a coffee-house at Oxford, he called to old Mr. Sheridan, " How came you, sir, to give Home a gold medal for writing that foolish play ?" and defied Mr. Sheridan to shew ten good lines in it. He did not insist they should be together ; but that there were not ten good lines in the whole play. He now persisted in this. I endeavoured to defend that pathetic k and beauti- ful tragedy, and repeated the following passage : - — '. — " Sincerity, " Thou first of virtues 1 let no mortal leave " Thy onward path, although the earth should gape, " And from the gulph of hell destruction cry, " To take dissimulation's winding way." Johnson, " That will not do, sir. Nothing is good but what is consistent with truth or probability, which this is not. Juvenal, indeed, gives us a noble picture of inflexible virtue : " Esto bonus milcs^ tutor bonusy arbiter idem " Integer : ambigua si rjuando citabere testis, " Incertceque rei^ Phalaris licet imfierity ut sis " Falsusy et admoto dictet fierjuria tauro, * Having mentioned, more than once, that my Journal was perused by Dr. Johnson, I think it proper to inform my readers that this is the last paragraph which he read. 350 JOURNAL OF A TOUR " Summtimcrede nefaa animatn firaferrc fiudori^ " Et firofiter -vitarn viviendi fitrdere causas."* He repeated the lines with great force and dignity ; then added, " And, after this, comes Jolinny Home, with his earth gaping^ and his destruction crying .•— Pooh }" While we were lamenting the number of ruined religious buildings which we had lately seen, I spoke with peculiar feeling of the miserable neglect of the chapel belonging to the palace of Holyrood-house, in which are deposited the remains of many of the Kings of Scotland, and of many of our nobility. I said, it was a disgrace to the country that it was not repaired ; and particularly complained that my friend Douglas, the representative of a great house, and proprietor of a vast estate, should suffer the sacred spot where his mother lies inteiTcd, to be unroofed, and exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather. Dr. Johnson, who, I know not how, had formed an opinion on the Hamilton side, in the Douglas cause, slily answered, " Sir, sir, don't be too severe upon the gentleman; don't accuse him of want of filial piety ! Lady Jane Douglas was not * An honest guardian, arbitrator just, Be thou ; thy station deem a sacred trust. With thy good sword maintain thy country's cause ; In every action venerate its laws : The liesuborn'd if falsely urg'd to swear. Though torture wait thee, torture firmly bear; To forfeit honour, think the highest shame, And life too dearly bought by loss of fame ; Nor, to preserve it, with thy virtue give That for which only man should wish to live. ^^ For this and the other translations to iwhich no signature is affixed, I am • ;.idebted to the friend whose observations are mentioned in the notes, p. 78 snd 503. TO THE HEBRIDES. 351 his mother." — He roused my zeal so much that I took the hberty to tell him he knew nothing of the cause ; which I do most seriously believe was the case. We were now " in a country of bridles and saddles/ *^ and set out fully equipped. The Duke of Argyle was obliging enough to mount Dr. Johnson on a stately steed from his grace's stable. My friend was highly pleased, and Joseph said, " He now looks like a bishop." We dined at the inn at Tarbat, and at night came to Rosedow, the beautiful seat of Sir James Colquhoun, on the banks of Lochlomond, where I, and any friends whom 1 have introduced, have ever been received with kind and elegant hospitality. Wednesday^ 21 th October. When I went into Dr. Johnson's room this morning, I observed to him how wonderfully courteous he had been at Inveraray, and said, " You were quite a fine gentleman, when with the duchess." He answered in good humour, " Sir, I look upon myself as a very po- lite man :" and he was right in a proper manly sense of the word. As an immediate proof of it, let me observe that he would not send back the duke of Argyle's horse without a letter of thanks, which I copied. To his Grace the Duke o/* Argyle. " My Lord, " THAT kindness which disposed your grace to supply me with the horse, which I have now returned,^ Avill make you pleased to hear that he has carried me well. By my diligence in the litde commission w:ith which I was honoured by the duchess, I will endeavopr to shew 352 JOURNAL OF A TOUR how highly I value the favours which I have received, and how much I desire to be thought, " My lord, " Your grace's most obedient, " and most humble servant, " Sam. Johnson." Rosedow, Oct. 29, 1773. The duke was so attentive to his respectable guest, that on the same day, he wrote him an answer, which was received at Auchinleck : To Dr. Johnson, Auchinleck j Ayrshire. « Sir, " I am glad to hear your journey from this place was not unpleasant, in regard to your horse. I wish I could have supplied you with good weather, which I am afraid you felt the want of. " The Duchess of Argyle desires her compliments to you, and is much obliged to you for remembering her commission. I am, sir, " Your most obedient humble servant, " Argyle." Inveraray, Oct. 29, 1773. I am happy to insert every memorial of the honour done to my great friend. Indeed, I was at all times de- sirous to preserve the letters which he received from eminent persons, of which, as of all other papers, he was very negligent ; and I once proposed to him, that they should be committed to my care, as his Custos Rotulo- rum. I wish he had complied with my request, as by that means many valuable writings might have been pre- served, that are now lost.* - * As a remarkable instance of his negligence, I remember some years ago to « •^^ TO THE HEBRIDES. 353 After breakfast Dr. Johnson and I were furnished with a boat, and sailed about upon Lochlomond, and landed on some of the islands which are interspersed. He was much pleased with the scene, which is so well known by the accounts of various travellers, that it is unnecessary for me to attempt any description of it. I recollect none of his conversation, except that when talking of dress, he said, " Sir, were I to have any thing fine, it should be very fine. Were I to wear a ring, it should not be a bauble, but a stone of great value. Were I to wear a laced or embroidered waistcoat, it should be very rich. I had once a very rich laced waistcoat, which I wore the first night of my tragedy." Lady Helen Colquhoun being a very pious woman, the conversation, after dinner, took a religious turn. Her ladyship defended the presbyterian mode of public wor- ship ; upon which Dr. Johnson delivered those excel- lent arguments for a form of prayer which he has intro- duced into his " Journey." I am myself fully convinced that a form of prayer for publick worship is in general most decent and edifying. Solennia verba have a kind of prescriptive sanctity, and make a deeper impression on the mind than extemporaneous effusions, in which, as we know not what they are to be, we cannot readily acquiesce. Yet I would allow also of a certain portion of extempore address, as occasion may require. This is the practice of the French Protestant churches. And although the office of forming supplications to the throne have found lying loose in his study, and without the cover which contained the address, a letter to him from Lord Thurlow, to whom he had made an application, as Chancellor, in behalf of a poor literary friend. It was expressed in such terms of respect for Dr. Johnson, that in my zeal for his reputation, I remonstrated warmly with him on his strange inattention, and obtained his permission to take a copy of it ; by which probably it has been preserved, as the original I have rea- son to suppose is lost. Z Z 554 JOURNAL OF A TOUR ,f, of heaven is, in my mind, too great a trust to be indis- criminately committed to the discretion of every minis- ter, I do not mean to deny, that sincere devotion may be experienced when joining in prayer with those who use no Liturgy. We were favoured with Sir James Colquhoun's coach to convey us in the evening to Cameron, the seat of Commissary Smollet. Our satisfaction at finding our- selves again in a comfortable carriage was very great. We had a pleasing conviction of the commodiousness of civilization, and heartily laughed at the ravings of those absurd visionaries who have attempted to persuade us of the superior advantages of a state of nature. Mr, Smollet was a man of considerable learning, with abundance of animal spirits ; so that he was a very good companion for Dr. Johnson, who said to me, " We have had more solid talk here than at any place where we have been." I remember Dr. Johnson gave us this evening an able and eloquent discourse on the Origin of Evil, and on the consistency of moral evil with the power and goodness of God. He shewed us how it arose from our free agen- cy, an extinction of which would be a still greater evil than any we experience. I know not that he said any thing absolutely new, but he said a great deal wonder- fully well ; and perceiving us to be delighted and satisfi- ed, he concluded his harangue with an air of benevolent triumph over an objection which has distressed many worthy minds : " This then is the answer to the ques- tion, uo6'.v TO KctKcv ?" — Mrs. Smollet whispered me that it was the best sermon she had ever heard. Much do I Upbraid myself for having neglected to preserve it. TO THE HEBRIDES. 355 Thursday^ 28th October. Mr. Smollet pleased Dr. Johnson, by producing a collection of news-papers in the time of the Usurpation, ii-om which it appeared that all sorts of crimes were very frequent during that horrible anarchy. By the side of the high road to Glasgow, at some distance from his house, he had erected a pillar to the memory of his in- genious kinsman, Dr. Smollet ; and he consulted Dr. Johnson as to an inscription for it. Lord Kames, who, though he had a great store of knowledge, with much ingenuity, and uncommon activity of mind, was no pro- found scholar, had it seems recommended an English inscription. Dr. Johnson treated this with great con- tempt, saying " An English inscriptian would be a dis- grace to Dr. Smollet;" and in answer to what Lord Kames had urged, as to the advantage of its being in English, because it would be generally understood, I observed, that all to whom Dr. Smollet's merit could be an object of respect and imitation, would understand it as well in Latin ; and that surely it was not meant for the Highland drovers, or other such people, who pass and repass that way. We were then shewn a Latin inscription, proposed for this monument. Dr. Johnson sat down with an ar- dent and liberal earnestness to revise it, and greatly im- proved it by several additions and variations. I unfor- tunately did not take a copy of it, as it originally stood ; but I have happily preserved every fragment of what Dr. Johnson wrote : Quisquis ades, viator, Vel mente felix^ vel stiidiis cultus, Immorare paululum memortts T O B I iE SMOLLET, M. D. .356 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Viri its virtutibus "Qtias in nomine et cive Et laudes, et imiteris^ Postquam mira * * * 'TfC 7lv 7(v "7^ Tali tantoque viro, suo patrueli, *j£. jk, jjg. 41^ ^ ^ Hanc columnam^ Amoris eheu! inane monumentum, In ipsis Levinice ripis, Quas primis infans vagitibus personuif, Versiculisque jam fere moriturus illustravit. yf\ T^ 7pr ";fr ^^ Tjt i^ir Ponendam curavit^ • The epitaph which has been inscribed on the pillar erected on the bJtnks of the Leven, in honour of Dr. SmoUet, is as follows. The part which was written by Dr. Johnson, it appears, has been altered ; whether for the better, the reader will judge. The alterations are distinguished by Italicks. Siste viator ! Si lepores ingeniique venam benignam. Si morum callidissimum pictorem, Unquam es miratus, Immorare paululum memoriae TOBIJa SMOLLET, M.D. Viri virtutibus hisce Quas in homine et cive Et laudes et imiteris, Haud mediocriter ornati : Qui in Uteris variis versatus, Postquam felicitate sibi firofiria Sese posteris commendaverat, Morte acerba raptus Anno aetatis 5 1 TO THE HEBRIDES. 357 We had this morning a singular proof of Dr. John- son's quick and retentive memor}\ Hay's translation of Eheu ! quam procul a patria ! Pi'ope Liburni portum in Italia, Jacet sepultus. Tali tantoque viro, patrueli, suo, Cui in decursu lampada Se potius tradidisse decuit, Hanc Columnam, Amoris, eheu ! inane monumentum In ipsis Levinise ripis, Quas versiculis sub exitu -vital illustratas Prirais infans vagitibus personuit, Ponendam curavit Jacobus Smollet de Bonhill. Abi et reminiscere, Hoc quidem honore, Non modo defuncti memoriae, Verum etiam exemplo, prospectum esse : Aliis enim, si modo digni sint, Idem erit virtutis praemium ! That the reader might be enabled to judge of the propriety of the additions made by Dr- Johnson to the epitaph on Mr. Maclaurin, mentioned in p. 35, 1 wished to have inserted it at large, but being at a distance frcJm the press when ihe former part of this work was printed, the note intended for that page did not arrive in time. I shall therefore introduce it here. .,,¥ Mr. Maclaurin's epitaph, as engraved on a marble tomb-stone, in the Grey- Friars church-yard, Edinburgh; Infra situs est COLIN MACLAURIN, Mathes. olim in Acad. Edin. Prof, Electus ipso Newtono suadente. H. L. P. F. Non ut nomini paterno consulat. Nam tali auxilio nil eget ; Bed ut in hoc infelici campo, Ubi luctus regnant et pavor, Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium .- Hujus enim scripta evolve, Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem Corpori caduco siiperstitem crede. 358 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Martial was lying in a window. I said, I thought it was pretty well done, and shewed him a particular epigram, I think, of ten, but am certain of eight, lines. He read it, and tossed away the book saying — " No, it is 7iot pretty well." As I persisted in my opinion, he said, "Why, sir, the original is thus," — (and he repeated it ;) " and this man's translation is thus," — and then he repeated that also, exactly, though he had never seen it before, and read it over only once, and that too, without any intention of getting it by heart. Here a post-chaise, which I had ordered from Glas- gow, came for us, and we drove on in high spirits. We stopped at Dunbarton, and though the approach to the castle there is very steep, Dr. Johnson ascended it with alacrity, and surveyed all that was to be seen. During the whole of our Tour he shewed uncommon spirit, could not bear to be treated like an old or infirm man, and was very unwilling to accept of any assistance, in- somuch that, at our landing on Icolmkill, when Sir Allan M'Lean and I submitted to be carried on men's shoul- ders from the boat to the shore, as it could not be brought quite close to land, he sprang into the sea, and waded vigorously out. On our arrival at the Saracen's Head Inn, at Glas- o-ow, I was made happy by good accounts from home ; and Dr. Johnson, who had not received a single letter since we left Aberdeen, found here a great many, the perusal of which entertained him much. He enjoyed in imagination the comforts which we could now com- mand, and seemed to be in high glee. I remember, he put a leg up on each side of the grate, and said, with a mock solemnity, by way of soliloquy, but loud enough for me to hear it, " Here am I, an English man, git- ting by a cofl/fire!" * TO THE HEBRIDES. 359 Friday^ 29th October. The professors of the iiniversity being informed of our arrival, Dr. Stevenson, Dr. Reid, and Mr. An- derson, breakfasted with us. Mr. Anderson ac- companied us while Dr. Johnson viewed this beau- tiful city. He had told me, that one day in Lon- don, when Dr. Adam Smith was boasting of it, he turn- ed to him and said, "Pray, sir, have you ever seen Brentford ?" — This was surely a strong instance of his impatience, and spirit of contradiction. I put him in mind of it to-day, while he expressed his admiration of the elegant buildings, and whispered him, " Don't you feel some remorse ?" We were received in the college by a number of the professors, w^ho shewed all due respect to Dr. Johnson ; and then we paid a visit to the principal. Dr. Leech- man, at his own house, where Dr. Johnson had the sa- tisfaction of being told that his name had been gratefully celebrated in one of the parochial congregations in the Highlands, as the person to whose influence it was chief- ly owing, that the New Testament was allowed to be translated into the Erse language. It seems some poli- tical members of the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge, had opposed this pious undertak- ing, as tending to preserve the distinction between the Highlanders and Lowlanders. Dr. Johnson wrote a long letter upon the subject to a friend, which being shewn to them, made them ashamed, and afraid of being publickly exposed ; so they were forced to a compli- ance. It is now in my possession, and is, perhaps, one of the best productions of his masterly pen. Professors Reid and Anderson, and the two Mes- sieurs Foulis, the Elzevirs of Glasgow, dined and drank S60 JOURNAL OF A TOUR tea with us at our inn, after which the professors went away ; and I, having a letter to write, left my fellow- traveller with Messieurs Foulis. Though good and in- genious men, they had that unsettled speculative mode of conversation which is oifensive to a man regularly taught at an English school and university. I found that, instead of listening to the dictates of the Sage, they had teazed him with questions and doubtful disputa- tions. He came in a flutter to me, and desired I might come back again, for he could not bear these men. " O ho! sir, (said I,) you are flying to me for refuge '." He never, in any situation, was at a loss for a ready re- partee. He answered, with quick vivacity, "It is of two evils choosing the least." I was delighted with this flash bursting from the cloud which hung upon his mind, closed my letter directly, and joined the com- pany. We supped at professor Anderson's. The general impression upon my memory is, that we had not much conversation at Glasgow, where the professors, like their brethren at Aberdeen, did not venture to expose themselves much to the battery of cannon which they knew might play upon them. Dr. Johnson, who was fully conscious of his own superior powers, afterwards praised Principal Robertson for his caution in this res- pect. He said to me, " Robertson, sir, was in the right. Robertson is a man of eminence, and the head of a college at Edinburgh. He had a character to main- tain, and did well not to risk its being lessened." Saturday^ SOth October. We set out towards Ayrshire. I sent Joseph on to Loudoun^ with a message, that, if the earl was at home, TO THE HEBRIDES. 3.61 Dr. Johnson and I would have the honour to dine with him. Joseph met us on the road, and reported that the earl '•'■ jumped for joy ^^"^ and said, " I shall be very hap- py to see them." — We were received with the most pleasing courtesy by his lordship, and by the countess his mother, who, in her ninety-fifth year, had all her fa- culties quite unimpaired. This was a very cheering sight to Dr. Johnson, who had an extraordinary desire for long life. Her ladyship was sensible and well-in- formed, and had seen a great deal of the world. Her lord had held several high offices, and she was sister to the great Earl of Stair. '" I cannot here refrain from paying a just tribute to the character of John Earl of Loudoun, who did more service to the county of Ayr in general, as well as to individuals in it, than any man we have ever had. It is painful to think that he met with much ingratitude from persons both in high and low rank : but such was his temper, such his knowledge of " base maiikind,"*^^ that, as if he had expected no other return, his mind was never soured, and he retained his good-humour and benevolence to the last. The tenderness of his heart was proved in 1745-6, when he had an important command in the Highlands, and behaved with a gene- rous humanity to the unfortunate. I cannot figure a more honest politician ; for though his interest in our county was great, and generally successful, he not only did not deceive by fallacious promises, but was anxious that people should not deceive themselves by too san- guine expectations. His kind and dutiful attention to his mother was unremitted. At his house was true hospitality ; a plain but a plentiful table ; and every * The unwilling gratitude of base mankind. Pope. 3 A 362 JOURNAL OF A TOUR guest, being left at perfect freedom, felt himself quite easy and happy. While I live, I shall honour the me- mory of this amiable man. At night, we advanced a few miles farther, to the house of Mr Campbell of Treesbank, who was married to one of my wife's sisters, and were entertained very agreeably by a worthy couple. Sunday J ^\st October. We repcTsed here in tranquillity. Dr. Johnson \vas pleased to find a numerous and excellent collection of books which had mostly belonged to the Reverend Mr. John Campbell, brother of our host. I was desirous td have procured for my fellow-traveller, to-day the com- pany of Sir John Cuninghame, of Caprington, whose castle was but two miles from us. He was a very dis- tinguished scholar, was long abroad, and during part of the time lived much with the learned Cuninghame, the opponent of Bentley as a critick upon Horace. He wrote Latin with great elegance, and, what is very remarkable, read Homer and Ariosto through, every year. I wrote to him to request he would come to us ; but unfortu- nately he was prevented by indisposition. Monday J \st November. Though Dr. Johnson was lazy, and averse to move^ I insisted that he should go with me, and pay a visit t© the countess of Eglintoune, mother of the late and present earl. I assured him, he would find himself amply re- compensed for the trouble ; and he yielded to my soli- citations, though with some unwillingness. We were well mounted^ and had not many miles to ride. He TO THE HEBRIDES. 363 talked of the attention that is necessary in order to dis- tribute our charity judiciously. " If thoughtlessly done, we may neglect the most deserving objects ; and, as every man has but a certain proportion to give, if it is lavished upon those who first present themselves, there may be nothing left for such as have a better claim. A man should first relieve those who are nearly connected with him, by whatever tie ; and then if he has any thing to spare, may extend his bounty to a wider circle." As we passed very near the castle of Dundonald, which was one of the many residences of the kings of Scotland, and in which Robert the Second lived and died. Dr. Johnson wished to survey it particularly. It stands on a beautiful rising ground, which is seen at a great distance on several quarters, and from whence there is an extensive prospect of the rich district of Cu- ninghame, the western sea, the Isle of Arran, and a part of the northern coast of Ireland. It has long been un- roofed ; and, though of considerable size, we could not by any power of imagination, figure it as having been a suitable habitation for majesty. Dr. Johnson, to irritate my old Scottish enthusiasm, was very jocular on the homely accommodation of " King Bob,'''' and roared and laughed till the ruins echoed. Lady Eglintoune, though she was now in her eigh- ty-fifth year, and had lived in the retirement of the coun- try for almost half a century, was still a very agreeable woman. She was of the noble house of Kennedy, and had all the elevation which the consciousness of such birth inspires. Her figure was majestick, her manners high-bred, her reading extensive, and her conversation elegant. She had been the admiration of the gay cir- cles of life, and the patroness of poets. Dr. Johnson was delighted with his reception here. Her principles 364 JOURNAL OF A TOUR in church and state were congenial with his. She knew all his merit, and had heard much of him from her son Earl Alexander, who loved to cultivate the acquaintance of men of talents, in every department. All who knew his lordship, will allow that his under* standing and accomplishments were of no ordinary rate. From the gay habits which he had early acquired, he spent too much of his time with men, and in pursuits, far beneath such a mind as his. He afterwards became sensible of it, and turned his thoughts to objects of im- portance ; but was cut ofif in the prime of his life. I cannot speak, but with emotions of the most affectionate regret, of one, in whose company many of my early days were passed, and to whose kindness I was much in- debted. Often must I have occasion to upbraid myself, that soon after our return to the main land, I allowed indo- lence to prevail over me so much, as to shrink from the labour of continuing my journal with the same minute- ness as before ; sheltering myself in the thought that we had done with ih^ Hebrides ; and not considering, that Dr. Johnson's Memorabilia were likely to be more valu- able when we were restored to a more polished society. Much has thus become irrecoverably lost. In the course of our conversation this day, it came out, that Lady Eglintoune was married the year before Dr. Johnson was born ; upon which she graciously said to him, that she might have been his mother, and that she now adopted him ; and when we were going away, she embraced him, saying, " My dear son, farewell !" — My friend was much pleased with this day's entertain- ment, and owned that I had done well to force him out. TO THE HEBRIDES. 365 Tuesday^ 2d November. We were now in a- country not only " of saddles and bridles,'''' but of post-chaises ; and having ordered one from Kilmarnock, we got to Auchinleck before dinner. My father was not quite a year and a half older than Dr. Johnson ; but his conscientious discharge of his laborious duty as a judge in Scotland, where the law proceedings are almost all in writing, — a severe complaint which ended in his death, — and the loss of my mother, a woman of almost unexampled piety and goodness, — had before this time in some degree affect- ed his spirits, and rendered him less disposed to exert his faculties : for he had originally a very strong mind, and cheerful temper. He assured me, he never had felt one moment of what is called low spirits, or uneasi- ness without a real cause. He had a great many good stories, which he told uncommonly ^v^ell, and he was remarkable for " humour, incolumi gravitate,'''' as Lord Monboddo used to characterize it. His age, his office, and his character, had long given him an acknowledged claim to great attention, in whatever company he was ; and he could ill brook any diminution of it. He was as sanguine a Whig and Presbyterian, as Dr. Johnson was a Tory, and church of England man : and as he had not much leisure to be informed of Dr. Johnson's great merits by reading his works, he had a partial and un- favorable notion of him, founded on his supposed poli- tical tenets ; which were so discordant to his own, that, instead of speaking of him with that respect to which he was entitled, he used to call him " 2i Jacobite fellow, ^'^ Knowing all this, I should not have ventured to bring them together, had not my father, out of kindness to me, desired me to invite Dr. Johnson to his house. 366 JOURNAL OF A TOUR I was very anxious that all should be well ; and begged of my friend to avoid three topicks, as to which, they differed very widely ; Whiggism, Presbyterianism, and — Sir John Pringle. He said courteously, *' I shall certainly not talk on subjects which I am told are disa- greeable to a gentleman under whose roof I am ; espe- cially, I shall not do so to your father. "^"^ Our first day went off very smoothly. It rained, and we could not get out ; but my father shewed Dr. John- son his library, which, in curious editions of the Greek and Roman classicks, is, I suppose, not excelled by any private collection in Great Britain. My father had studi- ed at Leyden, and been very intimate with the Gronovii, and other learned men there. He was a sound scholar, and, in particular, had collated manuscripts and differ- ent editions of Anacreon, and others of the Greek Lyrick poets, with great care ; so that my friend and be had much matter for conversation, without touching on the fatal topicks of difference. Dr. Johnson found here Baxter's Anacreon^ which he told me he had long enquired for in vain, and began to suspect there was no such book. Baxter was the keen antagonist of Barnes. His life is in the JSiographia Britannica. My father has written many notes on this book, and Dr. Johnson and I talked of having it reprinted, Wednesday^ ^d November, It rained all day, and gave Dr. Johnson an impres- sion of that incommodiousness of climate in the west, of which he has taken notice in his " Journey ;" but, beino* well accommodated, and furnished with variety of books, he was not dissatisfied. TO THE HEiJRIDES., 367 Some gentlemen of the neighbourliood came to visit my father ; but there was little conversation. One of them asked Dr. Johnson, how he liked the Highlands, The question seemed to irritate him, for he answered, " How, sir, can you ask me what obliges me to speak unfavourably of a country where I have been hospitably entertained ? Who can like the Highlands ? — I like the inhabitants very well." — The gentleman asked no more questions. Let me now make up for the present neglect, by again gleaning from the past. At Lord Monboddo's, after the conversation upon the decrease of learning in England, his lordship mentioned Hermes by Mr. Harris of Salisbury, as the work of a living authour, for whom he had a great respect. Dr. Johnson said nothing at the time ; but when we were in our post-chaise, told me, he thought Harris " a coxcomb." This he said of him, not as a man, but as an authour ; and I give his opinions of men and books, faithfully, whether they agree with my own, or not. I do admit, that there al- ways appeared to me something of affectation in Mr. Harris's manner of writing; something of a habit of clothing plain thoughts in analytick and categorical for- mality. But all his writings are imbued with learning ; and all breathe that philanthropy and amiable disposi- tion, which distinguished him as a man»* • This gentleman, though devoted to the study of grammar and dialecticlcs, was not so absorbed in it as to be without a sense of pleasantry, or to be offend- ed at his favoui-ite topicks being treated lightly. I one day met him in the street, as I was hastening to the House of Lords, and told him, I was sorry 1 could not stop, being rather too late to attend an appeal of the Duke of Hamilton against Douglas. "I thought (said he) their contest had been over long ago." I an- swered, •' The contest concerning Douglas's filiation was over long ago ; but the contest now is, who shall have the estate." Then, assuming the air of "an an- cient sage philosopher," I proceeded thus : '* Were I to predicate concerning 3.68 JOURNAL OF A TOUR At another time, during our Tour, he drew the cha- racter of a rapacious Highland Chief with the strength of Theophrastus or la Bruyere ; concluding with these words : " Sir, he has no more the soul of a Chief, than an attorney who has twenty houses in a street, and consi- ders how much he can make by them." He this day, when we were by ourselves, observed, how common it was for people to talk from books ; to re- tail the sentiments of others, and not their own ; in short, to converse without any originality of thinking. He was pleased to say, " You and I do not talk from books." Thursday^ 4:th November. T was glad to have at length a very fine day, on which I could shew Dr. Johnson the Place of my fami- ly, which he has honoured with so much attention in his " Journey." He is, however, mistaken in thinking that the Celtick name, Auchinleck^ has no relation to the natural appearance of it. I believe every Celtick name of a place will be found very descriptive. Au- chinleck does not signify a stony field, as he has said, but a field of fiag -stones ; and this place has a number of rocks, which abound in strata of that kind. The " sullen dignity of the old castle^" as he has forcibly expressed it, delighted him exceedingly. On one side of the rock on which its ruins stand, runs the river Lu- gar, which is here of considerable breadth, and is bor- dered by other high rocks, shaded with wood. On the other side runs a brook, skirted in the same manner, but him, I should say, the contest formerly was, What is he ? The contest now is. What Aas he?" — "Right, (replied. Mr. Harris, smiling,) you have done yrith quality, and have got into quantity." TO THE HEBRIDES. 369 on a jsmaller scale. I cannot figure a more romantick scene. I felt myself elated here, and expatiated to my illus- trious Mentor on the antiquity and honourable alliances of my family, and on the merits of its founder, Thomas Boswell, who was highly favoured by his sovereign, James IV of Scotland, and fell with him at the battle of Flodden-field ; and, in the glow of what, I am sensible, will, in a commercial age, be considered as genealogi- cal enthusiasm, did not omit to mention, what I was sure my friend would not think lightly of, my relation to the Royal Personage, whose liberality, on his acces- sion to the throne, had given him comfort and indepen- dence. I have, in a former page, acknowledged my pride of ancient blood, in which I Vi^as encouraged by Dr. Johnson : my readers therefore will not be surpriz- ed at my having indulged it on tliis occasion. Not far from the old castle is a spot of consecrated earth, on which may be traced the foundations of an ancient chapel, dedicated to St. Vincent, and where in old times, was the " place of graves" for the family. It grieves me to think that the remains of sanctity here, which were considerable, were dragged away, and em- ployed in building a part of the house of Auchinleck, of the middle age ; which was the family residence, till my father erected that " elegant modern mansion," of which Dr. Johnson speaks so handsomely. Perhaps this chapel may one day be restored. Dr. Johnson was pleased, when I shewed him some venerable old trees, under the shade of which my an- cestors had walked. He exhorted me to plant assidu- ously, as my father had done to a great extent. As I wandered with my revered friend in the groves of Auchinleck, I told him, that, if I survived him, it 3 b * 370 JOURNAL OF A TOUR was my intention to erect a monument to him here, among scenes which, in my mind, were all classical ; for in my youth 1 had appropriated to them many of the descriptions of the Roman poets. He could not bear to have death presented to him in any shape ; for, his constitutional melancholy made the king of terrours more frightful. He turned off the subject, saying, " Sir, I hope to see your grand- children I" This forenoon he observed some cattle without horns, of which he has taken notice in his " Journey," and seems undecided whether they be of a particular race. His doubts appear to have had no foundation j for my respectable neighbour, Mr. Fairlie, who, with all his attention to agriculture, finds time both for the classicks and his friends, assures me they are a distinct species, and that, when any of their calves have horns, a mixture of breed can be traced. In confirmation of his opinion, he pointed out to me the following passage in Tacitus, — " JVe a7'me?itis quidem suus honor ^ aut glo- ria frontis ;'''' (De mor. Germ. ^ 5.) which he wonder- ed had escaped Dr. Johnson. On the front of the house of Auchinleck is this in- scription : Quod petis, hie est ; Est Ulubris ; animus si te nan deficit ceqims. It is characteristick of the founder ; but the animus aquiis is, alas ! not inheritable, nor the subject of de- vise. He always talked to me as if it were in a man's own power to attain it ; but Dr. Johnson told me that he owned to him, when they were alone, his persuasion that it was in a great measure constitutional, or the ef- fect of causes which do not depend on ourselves, and TO THE HEBRIDES. 371 that Horace boasts too much, when he says, aquum mi ammum ipse parabo. Friday, 5th November. The Reverend Mr. Dun, our parish mmister, \yho had dined with us yesterday, with some other company, insisted that Dr. Johnson and I should dine with him to- day. This gave me an opportunity to shew my friend the road to the church, made by my father at a great expence, for above three miles, on his own estate, through a range of well enclosed farms, with a row of trees on each side of it. He called it the Fia sacra, and was very fond of it. Dr. Johnson, though he held no- tions far distant from those of the presbyterian clergy, yet could associate on good terms with them. He indeed occasionally attacked them. One of them discovered a narrowness of information concerning the dignitaries of the church of England, among whom may be found men of the greatest learning, virtue and piety, and of a truly apostolic character. He talked before Dr. Johnson, of fat bishops and drowsy deans ; and, in short, seemed to believe the illiberal and profane scoffings of professed satirists, or vulgar railers. Dr. Johnson was so highly offended, that he said to him, " Sir, you know no more of our church than a Hottentot." — I was sorry that he brought this upon himself. Saturday, &th November, I cannot be certain, whether it was on this day, or a former, that Dr. Johnson and my father came in col- lision. If I recollect right, the contest began while my father was shewing him his collection of medals ; and '372 JOURNAL OF A TOUR Oliver Cromwell's coin unfortunately introduced Charles the First, and Toryism. They became exceedingly warm, and violent, and I was very much distressed by being present at such an altercation between two men, both of whom I reverenced ; yet I durst not interfere. It would certainly be very unbecoming in me to exhibit my honoured father, and my respected friend, as intel- lectual gladiators, for the entertainment of the publick ; and therefore I suppress what would, I dare say, make an interesting scene in this dramatick sketch, — this ac- count of the transit of Johnson over the Caledonian He- misphere. Yet I think I may, without impropriety, mention one circumstance, as an instance of my father's address. Dr. Johnson challenged him as he did us all at Talisker, to point out any theological works of merit written by Presbyterian ministers in Scotland. My father whose studies did not lie much in that way, owned to me after- wards, that he was somewhat at a loss how to answer, but that luckily he recollected having read in catalogues the title of Durhain on the Galatians ; upon which he boldly said, " Pray, sir, have you read Mr. Durham's excellent commentary on the Galatians?" — " No sir," said Dr. Johnson. By this lucky thought my father kept him at bay, and for some time enjoyed his triumph ; but his antagonist soon made a retort, which I forbear to mention. In the course of their altercation, Whiggism and Presbyterianism, Toryism and Episcopacy, were terri- bly buffeted. My worthy hereditary friend, Sir John Pr ingle, never having been mentioned, happily escaped without a bruise. My father's opinion of Dr. Johnson may be conjec- tured from the name he afterwards gave him, which was I TO THE HEBRIDES. 373 Urs^ Major. But it is not true, as has been report- ed, that it was in consequence of my saying that he was a constellation of genius and hterature. It was a sly abrupt expression to one of his brethren on the bench of thje Court of Session, in which Dr. Johnson was then standing ; but it was not said in his hearing. I Sunday^ 1th November. ■■'■ 1 ■ . . . My father and I went to publick worship in our parish- church, in which I regretted that Dr. Johnson would not join us ; for, though we have there no form of prayer, nor magnificent solemnity, yet, as God is worshipped in spirit and in truth, and the same doctrines preached as in the church of England, my friend would certainly have shewn more liberality had he attended. I doubt not, however, but he employed his time in pri- vate to very good purpose. His uniform and fervent piety was manifested on many occasions during our Tour, which I have not mentioned. — His reason for not joining in Presbyterian worship has been recorded in a former page.* Monday, 8th JYov ember. Notwithstanding the altercation that had passed, my father who had the dignified courtesy of an old Baron, was very civil to Dr. Johnson, and politely attended him to the post-chaise, which was to convey us to Edin- burgh. Thus they parted. — They are nov/ in another, and a higher, state of existence : and as they were both worthy christian men, I trust they have met in happi- * p. 101. JOURNAL OF A TOUR ness. But I must observe, in justice to my friend's po- litical principles, and my own, that they have met in a place where there is no room for Whiggism. We came at night to a good inn at Hamilton. — I recollect no more. Tuesday^ 9th, November. 1 1 wished to have shewn Dr. Johnson the Duke of Hamilton's house, commonly called the Pc/ace of Hamil- ton^ which is close by the town. It is an object which, having been pointed out to me as a splendid edifice, from my earliest years, in travelling between Auchinleck and Edinburgh, has still great grandeur in my imagination. My friend consented to stop, and view the outside of it, but could not be persuaded to go into it. We arrived this night at Edinburgh, after an absence of ^ighty-three days. For five weeks together, of the tempestuous season, there had been no account received of lis. I cannot express how happy I was on finding myself again at home. ii> Wednesday^ 10th November' . Id Mr. Drummond, the bookseller, came to break- fast.! Dr. Johnson and he had not met for ten years. Theire was respect on his side, and kindness on Dr. Johnson's. Soon afterwards Lord Elibank came in, and was j much pleased at seeing Dr^ Johnson in Scotland. His lordship said, " hardly any thing seemed to him moije improbable." Dr. Johnson had a very high opin- ion of him. Speaking of him to me, he characterized him thus : " Lord Elibank has read a great deal. It is tuie, I can find in books all that he has read ; but he "iO THE HEBRIDES. 575 has a great deal of what is in books, proved by the test of real life." — Indeed, there have been few men whose conversation discovered more knowledge enlivened by fancy. He published several small pieces of distin- guished merit ; and has left some in manuscript, in par- ticular an account'of the expedition against Carthagena, in which he served as an officer in the army. His writings deserve to be collected. He was the early patron of Dr. Robertson, the historian, and Mr. Home, the tragick poet; who, when they were ministers of country parishes, lived near his seat. He told me, " I saw these lads had talents, and they were much with me." — I hope they will pay a grateful tribute to his memory. The morning was chiefly taken up by Dr. Johnson's giving him an account of our Tour. — The subject of difference in political principles was introduced. — John- son. "It is much increased by opposition. There was a violent Whig, with whom I used to contend with great eagerness. After his death I felt my Toryism much abated." — I suppose he meant Mr. Walmsley, of Lichfield, whose character he has drawn so well in his Life of Edmund Smith. Mr. Nairne came in, and he and I accompanied Dr. Johnson to Edinburgh castle, which he ov/ned was " a great place." But I must mention, as a striking instance of that spirit of contradiction to which he had a strong propensity, when LordElibank was some days after talking of it with the natural elation of a Scotch- man, or of any man who is proud of a stately fortress in his own country. Dr. Johnson affected to despise it, observing, that " it would make a good pT'ison in Eng- land." Lest it should be supposed that I have suppressed 376 JOURNAL OF A TOUR one of his sallies against my countr}^, it may not be im- proper here to correct a mistaken account that has been circulated, as to his conversation this day. It has been said, that being desired to attend to the noble prospect from the Castle-hill, he replied, " Sir, the noblest pros- pect that a Scotchman ever sees, is the high road that leads him to London." — This lively sarcasm was thrown out at a tavern in London, in my presence, many years before. We had with us to-day at dinner, at my house, the Lady Dowager Colvill, and Lady Anne Erskine, sisters of the Earl of Kelly ; the Honourable Archibald Ers- kine,who has now succeeded to that title ; Lord Elibank ; the Reverend Dr. Blair ; Mr. Tytler, the acute vindica- tor of Mary Queen of Scots, and some other friends. Fingal being talked of. Dr. Johnson, who used to boast that he had, from the first, resisted both Ossian and the Giants of Patagonia, averred his positive disbe- lief of its authenticity. Lord Elibank said, " 1 am sure it is not M'Pherson's. Mr. Johnson, I keep company a great deal with you ; it is known I do. I may bor- row from you better things than I can say myself, and give them as my own ; but, if I should, every body will know whose thev are." — The Doctor was not sof- tened by this compliment. He denied merit to Fingal, supposing it to be the production of a man who has had the advantages that the present age affords ; and said, *' nothing is more easy than to write enough in that style, if once you begin."* — One gentleman in com- pany expressing his opinion *' that Fingal was certamly * I desire not to be understood as agreeing entirely with the opinions of Dr. johnsonj whicVi I relate withouc any remark. The many imitations, however, of Fingal, that have been published, ccnfinn this observation in a considerable degree. TO THE HEBRIDES. 377 genuine ; for that he had heard a great part of it repeated in the original." Dr. Johnson indignantly asked him, whether he understood the original ; to which an an- swer being given in the negative, " Why then, (said Dr. Johnson,) we see to what this testimony comes : — • thus it is." I mention this as a remarkable proof how liable the mind of man is to credulity, when not guarded by such strict examination as that which Dr. Johnson habitually practised. The talents and integrity of the gentleman who made the remark, are unquestionable ; yet, had not Dr. Johnson made him advert to the consideration, that he who does not understand a language, cannot know that something which is recited to him is in that lan- guage, he might have believed, and reported to this hour, that he had " heard a great part of T^m^a/ repeated in the original." For the satisfaction of those on the north of the Tweed, who may think Dr. Johnson's account of Caledonian credulity and inaccuracy too strong, it is but fair to add, that he admitted the same kind of ready belief might be found in his own country. "He would undertake, (he said,) to write an epick poem on the . story of Robin Hood^ and half England, to whom the names and places he should mention in it are familiar,, would believe and declare they had heard it from their earliest years." One of his objections to the authenticity of Fingal, during the conversation at Ulinish, is omitted in my Journal, but I perfectly recollect it. — " Why is not the original deposited in some publick library, instead of exhibiting attestations of its existence ? Suppose there were a question in a court of justice, whether a man be dead or alive : You aver he is alive, and you bring fifty 3 c ^78 JOURNAL OF A TOUR witnesses to swear it : I answer, " Why do you not pro> duce the man ?" — This is an argument founded on one of the first principles of the laxv of evidence, which Gii- bert would have held to be irrefragable. I do not think it incumbent on me to give any precise decided opinion upon this question, as to which I believe more than some, and less than others. The subject ap- pears to have now become very uninteresting to the publick. That i^?V2^'«/ is not from beginning to end a translation from the Gallick, but that some passages have been supplied by the editor to connect the whole, I have heard admitted by very warm advocates for its authen- ticity. If this be the case^ why are not these distinctly ascertained? Antiquaries, and admirers of the work, may complain, that they are in a situation similar to that of the unhappy gentleman v/hose wife informed him, on her death- bed, that one of their reputed children was not his: and, when he eagerly begged her to declare which of them it was, she answered, " That you shall never know ;" and expired, leaving him in irreme- diable doubt as to them alL I beg leave now to say something upon second sights of which I have related two instances, as they impressed my mind at the time. I own, I returned from the Hebrides with a considerable degree of faith in many stories of that kind which I heard with a too easy acqui- escence, without any close exa^mination of the evi- dence : but, since that time, my belief in those stories has been much weakened, by reflecting on the careless inaccuracy of narrative in common matters, from which we may certainly conclude that there may be the same in what is more extraordinary. — It is but just, however, to add, that the belief in second sight is not peculiar to the Highlands and Isles. TO THE HEBRIDES. S79 Some years after our Tour, a cause was tried in the Court of Session, where the principal fact to be ascer- tained was, whether a ship-master, who used to frequent the Western Highlands and Isles, was drowned in one partickiar year, or in the year after. A great number o£ witnesses from those parts were examined on each side, and swore directly contrary to each other, upon this simple question. One of them, a very respectable Chieftain, who told me a story of second sight, which I have not mentioned, but which I too implicitly believ- ed, had in this case, previous to this publick examina- tion, not only said, but attested under his hand, that he had seen the ship-master in the year subsequent to that in which the court was finally satisfied he was drowned. When interrogated with the strictness of judicial inquiry, and under the awe of an oath, he recollected himself better, and retracted what he had formerly assertedj apologising for his inaccuracy, by telling the judges, " A man will sa7/ what he will not swear.''^ — By many he was much censured, and it was maintained that every arentleman would be as attentive to truth without the sanction of an oath, as with it. Dr. Johnson, though he himself was distinguished at all times by a scrupu- lous adherence to truth, controverted this proposition ; and, as a proof that this was not, though it ought to be, the case, urged the very different decisions of elections under Mr. Grenville's Act, from those formerly made. " Gentlemen will not pronounce upon oath, what they would have said, and voted in the house, without that sanction." However difficult it may be for men v^^ho believe in preternatural communications, in modern times, to satisfy those who are of a different opinion, they may easily refute the doctrine of their opponents, who impute a 380 JOURNAL OF A TOUR belief mseamd sight to superstition. To entertain a visionary notion that one sees a distant or future event, may be called superstition ; but the correspondence of the fact or event with such an impression on the fancy, though certainly very wonderful, if proved^ has no more connection with superstition, than magnetism or electricity. After dinner, various topicks were discussed ; but I recollect only one particular. Dr. Johnson compared the different talents of Garrick and Foote, as compa- nions, and gave Garrick greatly the preference for elegance, though he allowed Foote extraordinary pow- ers of entertainment. He said, " Garrick is restrained by some principle ; but Foote has the advantage of an unlimited range. Garrick has some delicacy of feeling ; it is possible to put him out ; you may get the better of him ; but Foote is the most incompressible fellow that I ever knew : when you have driven him into a corner, and think you are sure of him, he runs through between your legs, or jumps over your head, and makes his escape." Dr. Erskine and Mr. Robert Walker, two very re- spectable ministers of Edinburgh, supped with us, as did the Reverend Dr. Webster. — The conversation turned on the Moravian missions, and on the Metho- dists. Dr. Johnson observed in general, that missiona- ries were too sanguine in their accounts of their success among savages, and that much of what they tell is not to be believed. He owned that the Methodists had done good ; had spread religious impressions among the vul- gar part of mankind : but, he said, they had great bit- terness against other Christians, and that he could never get a Methodist to explain in what he excelled others ; TO THE HEBRIDES. 381 that it always ended in the indispensible necessity of hearing one of their preachers. Thursday, X\th November. Principal Robertson came to us as we sat at break- fast : he advanced to Dr. Johnson, repeating a line of Virgil, which I forget. I suppose, either or Post varios casus, per tot discrimina rei'um,^ — — 7nultum ille et terris jactatics, et alto.-\ Every body had accosted us with some studied compli- ment on our return. Dr. Johnson said, " I am really ashamed of the congratulations which we receive. We are addressed as if we had made a voyage to Nova Zem- bla, and suffered five persecutions in Japan." And he afterwards remarked, that " to see a man come up with a formal air, and a Latin line, when we had no fatigue and no danger, was provoking." — I told him, he was not sensible of the danger, having lain under cover in the boat during the storm : he was like the chicken, that hides its head under its wing, and then thinks itself safe. Lord Elibank came to us, as did Sir William Forbes. The rash attempt in 1745 being mentioned, I observed, that it would make a fine piece of history. Dr. Johnson said it would. Lord Elibank doubted whether any man of this age coul i give it impartially. — Johnson. " A man by talking with those of different sides, who were actors in it, and putting down all that he hears, may in time collect the materials of a good narrative. You are to * Through various hazards and events we move. f Long labours both by sea and land he bore. Dryden. 382 JOURNAL OF A TOUR consider, all history was at first oral. I suppose Vol- taire was fifty years in collecting his Louis XIF, which he did in the way that I am proposing." — Robertson. " He did so. He lived much with all the great people who were concerned in that reign, and heard them talk of every thing ; and then either took Mr. Boswell's wdiy-, of writing down what he heard, or, which is as good, preserved it in his memory ; for he has a wonderful memory." — With the leave, however, of this elegant historian, no man's memory can preserve facts or sayings with such fidelity as may be done by writing them down when they are recent. — Dr. Robertson said, "It was now full time to make such a collection as Dr. Johnson sug- gested ; for many of the people who were then in arms, were dropping off*; and both Whigs and Jacobites were now come to talk with moderation." — Lord Elibank said to him, " Mr Robertson, the first thing that gave me a high opinion of you, was your saying in the Select So- ciety,* while parties ran high, soon after the year 1745, that you did not think worse of a man's moral character for his having been in rebellion. This was venturing to utter a liberal sentiment, while both sides had a de- testation of each other." Dr. Johnson observed, that being in rebellion from a notion of another's right, was not connected with de- pravity ; and that we had this proof of it, that all man- kind applauded the pardoning of rebels ; which they would not do in the case of robbers and murderers. He said, with a smile, that " he wondered that the phrase of unnatural rebellion should be so much used, for that all rebellion was natural to man." *"" A societv for deb3.te in Edinbuvg-h, consistjr.g of the most eminent men. TO THE HEBRIDES. 383 As I kept no journal of any thing that passed after this morning, I shall, from memory, group together this and the other days, till that on which Dr. Johnson depart- ed for London. They were in all nine days ; on which he dined at Lady Colvill's, Lord Hailes's, Sir Adolphus Oughton's, Sir Alexander Dick's, Principal Robert- son's, Mr. M'Laurin's, and thrice at Lord Elibank's seat in the country, where we also passed two nights. He supped at the Honourable Alexander Gordon's, now one of our judges, at Mr. Nairne's, Dr. Blair's and Mr. Tytler's ; and at my house thrice, — one evening with a numerous company, chiefly gentlemen of the law j ano- ther with Mr. Menzies of Culdares, and Lord Monbod- do, who disengaged himself on purpose to meet him ; and the evening on which we returned from Lord Eli- bank's he supped with my vvife and me, by ourselves. He breakfasted at Dr. Webster's, at old Mr. Drum- mond's, and at Dr. Blacklock's; and spent one fore- noon at my uncle Dr. Boswell's who shewed hun his curious museum ; and, as he was an elegant scholar, and a physician bred in the school of Boerliaave, Dr. Johnson was pleased with his company. On the mornings when he breakfasted at my house, he had, from ten o'clock till one or two, a constant levee of various persons, of very different characters and descriptions. I could not attend him, being obliged to be in the Court of Session ; but my wife was so good as to devote the greater part of the morning to the end- less task of pouring out tea for my friend and his vi-. sitors. Such was the disposition of his time at Edinburgh, He said one evening to me, in a fit of languor, " Sir, we have been harassed by invitations." T acquiesced. 384 JOURNAL OF A TOUR " Ay, sir, he replied ; but how much worse would it have been, if we had been neglected ?" From what has been recorded in this Journal, it may well be supposed that a variety of admirable conversa- tion has been lost, by my neglect to preserve it.— I shall endeavour to recollect some of it, as well as I can. At Lady ColvilPs, to whom I am proud to intro- duce any stranger of eminence, that he may see what dignity and grace is to be found in Scotland, an officer observed, that he had heard Lord Mansfield was not a great English lawyer. — Johnson. " Why, sir, supposing Lord Mansfield not to have the splendid talents which he possesses, he must be a great English lawyer, from having been so long at the bar, and having passed through so many of the great offices of the law. Sir, you may. as well maintain that a carrier, who has driven a pack-horse between Edinburgh and Berwick for thirty years, does not know the road, as that Lord Mansfield does not know the law of England." At Mr. Nairne's, he drew the character of Richard- son, the author of Clarissa^ with a strong yet delicate pencil. I lament much that I have not preserved it : I only remember that he expressed a high opinion of his talents and virtues ; but observed, that " his perpetual study was to ward off petty inconveniences, and procure petty pleasures ; that his love of continual superiority was such, that he took care to be always surrounded by women, who listened to him implicitly, and did not ven- ture to controvert his opinions ; and that his desire of distinction was so great, that he used to give large vails to the Speaker Onslow's servants, that they might treat him with respect." On the same evening, he would not allow that the private life of a judge, in England, was required to be • TO THE HEBRIDES, 385 sp strictly decorous as I supposed. " Why then, sir, (said I,) according to your account, an English judge may just live like a gentleman." Johnson. " Yes, sir, — if he can.'''' At Mr. Tytler's, I happened to tell that one even- ing, a great many years ago, when Dr. Hugh Blair and I were sitting together in the pit of Drury-lane play- house, in a wild freak of youthful extravagance, I en- tertained the audience prodigiously^ by imitating the lowing of a cow. A little while after I had told this story, I differed from Dr. Johnson, I suppose too confi- dently, upon some point, which I now forget. He did not spare me. " Nay, sir, (said he,) if you cannot talk better as a man, I'd have you bellow like a cow."* At Dr. Webster's, he said, that he believed hardly any man died without affectation. This remark ap- pears to me to be well founded, and will account for many of the celebrated death-bed sayings which are re- corded. On one of the evenings at my house, when he told that Lord Lovat boasted to an English nobleman, that though he had not his w-ealth, he had two thousand men whom he could at any time call into the field, the Hon- ourable Alexander Gordon observed, that those two thousand men brought him to the block. — •" True, sir, (said Dr. Johnson : ) but you may just as well argue, concerning a man who has fallen over a precipice to • As I have been scrupulously exact in relating anecdotes concerning other persons, I shall not withhold any part of this story, however ludicrous. — I was so, successful in this boyish frolick, that the univei-sal cry of the galleries was, *• En- core the cow ! Encore the cow !" In the pride of my heart, I attempted imitations of some other animals, but with very inferior effect. My reverend friend, anxi ous for vajfame, with an air of the utmost gravity and earnestness, addressed me, tliiis : " My dear sir, I would confine myself to the cavi !" 3. n S86 JOURNAL OF A TOUR . which he has walked too near,—' His two legs brought him to that.' Is he not the better for having two legs?'' At Dr. Blair's I left him, in order to attend a con- sultation, during which he and his amiable host were by themselves. I returned to supper, at which were Prin- cipal Robertson, Mr. Nairne, and some other gentle- men. Dr. Robertson and Dr. Blair, I remember, talk- ed well upon subordination and government ; and, as my friend and I were walking home, he said to me, ** Sir, these two doctors are good men, and wise men." — I begged of Dr. Blair to recollect what he could of the long conversation that passed between Dr. Johnson and him alone, this evening, and he obligingly wrote to. me as follows : " Dear Sir, March 3, 1785. " — AS so many years have intervened, since I chanced to have that conversation with Dr. Johnson in my house, to which you refer, I have forgotten most of what then passed, but remember that I was both in- structed and entertained by it. Among other subjects, the discourse happening to turn on modern Latin poets, the Doctor expressed a very favourable opinion of Buchanan, and instantly repeated, from beginning to end, an ode of his, intituled, Calenda Maies, (the Seventh in his Miscellaneorum Liber,) beginning with these words,- * Salvete sacris aeliciis sacra,'* with which I had formerly been unacquainted ; but, upon perusing it, the praise which he bestowed upon it, as one of the happiest of Buchanan's poetical compositions, appeared to me very just. He also repeated to me a Latin ode he had composed in one of the Western Islands, from which he had lately returned. We had much discourse concerning his excursion to those islands, with which he TO THE HEBRIDES. 387 expressed himself as having been highly pleased ; talk- ed in a favourable manner of die hospitality of the inha- bitants ; and particularly spoke much of his happiness in having you for his companion, and said, that the longer he knew you, he loved and esteemed you the more. This conversation passed in the interval between tea and supper, when we were by ourselves. You, and the rest of the company who were with us at sup- per, have often taken notice that he was uncommonly bland and gay that evening, and gave much pleasure to all who were present. — This is all that I can recol- lect distinctly of that long conversation. " Yours sincerely, "Hugh Blair." At Lord Hailes's, we spent a most agreeable day ; but again I must lament that I was so indolent as to let almost all that passed evaporate into oblivion. Dr. John- son observed there, that " it is wonderful how ignorant many officers of the army are, considering how much leisure they have for study, and the acquisition of know- ledge." I hope he was mistaken ; for he maintained that many of them were ignorant of things belonging immediately to their own profession ; "for instance, many cannot tell how far a musket will carry a bullet ;" in proof of which, I suppose he mentioned some par- ticular person, for Lord Hailes, from whom I solicit- ed what he could recollect of that day, writes to me as follows : " As to Dr. Johnson's observation about the ig- norance of officers in the length that a musket will carry, my brother. Colonel Dalrymple, was present, and he thought that the doctor was either mistaken, by 368 JOURNAL OF A TOUR putting the question wrong, or that he had conversed on the subject; with some person out of service. " Was it upon that occasion that he expressed no curiosity to see the room at Dunfermhne, where Charles I. was bom ? ' I know that he was bom, (said he ;) no matter where.' — Did he envy us the birth-place of the king?" Near the end of his " Journey," Dr. Johnson has given liberal praise to Mr. Braidwood's academy for the -deaf and dumb. When he visited it, a circumstance occurred which was truly characteristical of our great Lexicographer. " Pray, (said he,) can they pronounce any long words ? — Mr. Braidwood informed him they could. Upon which Dr. Johnson wrote one of his sesquipedalia verba, which was pronounced by the scholars, and he was satisfied. — My readers may per- haps wish to know what the word was ; but I cannot gratify their curiosity. Mr. Braidwood told me, it re- mained long in his school, but had been lost before I made my inquiry.* Dr. Johnson one day visited the Court of Session. He thought the mode of pleading there too vehement, and too much addressed to the passions of the judges. " This (said he) is not the Areopagus." At old Mr Drummond's, Sir John Dalrymple quaint- ly said, the two noblest minded animals in the world * One of the best criticks of our age " does not wish to prevent the admirers of the incorrect and nerveless style, which generally prevailed for a century before Dr. Johnson's energetick writings were known, from enjoying the laugh that this story may produce, in which he is very ready to join them." He, however, re- quests me to observe, that " my friend very properly chose a lon^ word on this occasion, not, it is believed, frMn any predilection for pollysyllables, (though he certainly had a due respect for them,) but in order to put Mr. Braidwood's skill to the strictest test, and to fry the efficacy of his insti'ucticn by the most difficult exfertion of the organs of^lu&ipupib.". TO THE HEBRIDES. 5.8P were, a Scotch Highlander, and an English Sailor, " Why, sir, said Dr. Johnson, I shall say nothing as to the Scotch Highlander, but as to the English Sailor, I cannot agree with you." — Sir John said he was generous in giving away his money. — Johnson. " Sir, he throws away his money, without thought, and without merit. I do not call a tree generous, that sheds its fruit at every breeze." — Sir John having affected to complain of the attacks made upon his Memoirs, Dr. Johnson said, / " Nay, sir, do not complain. It is advantageous to an / authour, that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck only at one end of the room, it will soon fall to the ground,. To keep it up, it must be struck at both ends." — Often have I reflected on this since ; and instead, of being an- gry at many of those who have written against me, have smiled to think that they were unintentionally subser- vient to my fame, by using a battledoor to make me virum, volitare per ora. At Sir Alexander Dick's, from that absence of mind - / to which every man is at times subject, I told, in a blun- dering manner,Lady Eglintoune's complimentary adop- tion of Dr. Joluison as her son ; for I unfortunately stated that her ladyship adopted him as her son, in con- sequence of her having been married the year ajter he was born. Dr. Johnson instantly corrected me. " Sir, don't you perceive that you are defaming the countess ? For, supposing me to be her son, and that she was not married till the year after my birth, I must hav€ been her natural son." A young lady of quality, who was' present, very handsomely said, " Might not the son have justified the fault V — My friend was much flattered by this compliment, which he never forgot. When in more than ordinary spirits, and talking of his journey in Scot^ 390 JOURNAL OF A TOUR land, he has called to me, *' Boswelll, what was it that the young hidy of quality said to me at Sir Alexander Dick's ?" Nobody will doubt that I was happy in re- peating it. My illustrious friend, being now desirous to be again in the great theatre of life and animated exertion, took a place in the coach, which was to set out for London on Monday the 22d of November. Sir John Dairy mple pressed him to come on the Saturday before, to his house at Cranston, which being twelve miles from Edin- burgh, upon the middle road to Newcasde, (Dr. John- son had come to Edinburgh by Berwick, and along the naked coast,) it would make his journey easier, as the coach would take him up at a more seasonable hour than that at which it sets out. Sir John, I perceived, was ambitious of having such a guest ; but, as I was well assured, that at this very time he had joined with some of his prejudiced countrymen in railing at Dr. Johnson, and had said, " he wondered how any gentle- man of Scotland could keep company with him," I thought he did not deserve the honour : yet as it might be a convenience to Dr. Johnson, I contrived that he should accept the invitation, and engaged to conduct him, I resolved that on our way to Sir John's, we should make a little circuit by Roslin castle and Haw- thornden, and wished to set out soon after breakfast ; but young Mr. Tytler came to shew Dr. Johnson some essays which he had written ; and my great friend, who was exceedingly obliging when thus consulted, was de- tained so long that it was, I believe, one o'clock before we got into our post-chaise. I found that we should be too late for dinner at Sir John Dalrymple's, to which we were engaged : but I would by no means lose the pleasure of seeing my friend at Hawthornden, — of see- TO THE HEBRIDES. 391 ing Sam Johnson at the very spot where Ben Johnson^ visited the learned and poetical Drummond. We surveyed Roslin castle, the romantick scene around it and the beautiful Gothick chapel, and dined and drank tea at the inn ; after which we proceeded to Hawthornden, and viewed the caves ; and I all the while had Rare Ben in my mind, and was pleased to think that this place was now visited by another celebrated wit of England. By this time " the waning night was growing old," and we were yet several miles from Sir John Dalrym- pie's. Dr. Johnson did not seem much troubled at our having treated the baronet with so little attention to po- liteness ; but when I talked of the grievous disappoint- ment, it must have been to him that we did not come to ^Q, feast that he had prepared for us, (for he told us he had killed a seven-year-old sheep on purpose,) my friend got into a merry mood, and jocularly said, " I dare say, sir, he has been very sadly distressed : Nay, we do not know but the consequence may have been fatal. Let me try to describe his situation in his own historical style. I have as good a right to make him think and talk, as he has to tell us how people thought and talked a hundred years ago, of which he has no evidence. All history, so far as it is not supported by contemporary evidence, is romance. — Stay now. — Let us consider !" He then (heartily laughing all ^the while) proceeded in his imitation, I am sure to the following effect, though now, at the distance of almost twelve years, I cannot pretend to recollect all the precise words : " Dinner being ready, he wondered that his guests *' were not yet come. His wonder was soon succeeded " by impatience. He walked about the room in anxious "agitation ; sometimes he looked at his watch, some- 392 JOURNAL OP A TOUR ^* times he looked out at the window with an eager gaze " of expectation, and revolved in his mind the various " accidents of human life. His family beheld him with " mute concern. ' Surely (said he, with a sigh,) they " will not fail me.' — The mind of man can bear a cer- " tain pressure ; but there is a point when it can bear no " more. A rope was in his view, and he died a Roman " death."* It was very late before we reached the seat of Sir John Dalrymple, who, certainly with some reason was not in very good humour. Our conversation was not brilliant. We supped, and went to bed in ancient rooms, which would have better suited the climate of Italy in summer, than that of Scotland in the month of November. I recollect no conversation of the next day, worth preserving, except one saying of Dr. Johnson, which will be a valuable text for man}^ decent old dowagers, and other good company, in various circles, to descant upon.— He said, " I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is very useful in life ; it generates kind- ness, and consolidates society." — He certainly could not mean deep play. My friend and I thought we should be more com- fortable at the inn at Blackshiels, two miles farther on. We therefore went thither in the evening, and he was very entertaining ; but I have preserved nothing but the pleasing remembrance, and his verses on George * " Essex was at that tune confined to the same chamber of the Tower from \Th'.ch his father Lord Capel had been led to death, and in which his wife's grand- father had inflicted a voluntary death upon himself. When he saw his friend carried to what he reckoned certain fate, their common enemies enjoying the spectacle, and reflected that it was he who had forced Lord Howard upon the confidence of Russel.he retired, and, by a Roman death, put an end to his misery." Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great-Britain and Ireland, Vol. 1. p. 36- TO THE HEBRIDES. 39.3 rche Second and Gibber, and his epitaph on Parnell, which he was then so good as to dictate to me. We breakfasted togethei- next morning, and then the coach came, and took him up. He had, as one of his companions in it, as far as Newcastle, tlie worthy and ingenious Dr. Hope, botanical professor at Edinburgh. Both Dr. Johnson and he used to speak of their good fortune in thus accidentaHy meeting; for they had much instructive conversation, which is always a most valua- ble enjoyment, and, when found where it is not expect- ed, is peculiarly relished. I have now completed my account of our Tour to the Hebrides. I have brought Dr. Johnson down to Scotland, and seen him into the coach which in a few hours carried him back into England, He said to me often, that the time he spent in this Tour was the plea- santest part of his life, and asked me if I would lose the recollection of it for five hundred pounds. I answered I would not; and he applauded my setting such a value on an accession of new images in my mind. Had it not been for me, I am persuaded Dr. John- son never would have undertaken such a journey ; and I must be allowed to assume some merit, from having been the cause that our language has been enriched with such a book as that which he published on his return .; a book Avhich I never read but with the utmost admira- tion, as I had such opportunities of knowing from what very meagre materials it was composed. But my praise may be supposed partial ; and there- fore I shall insert two testimonies, not liable to that ob- jection, both written by gentlemen of Scotland, to whose opinions I am confident the highest respect will be paid, Lord Hailes, and Mr. Dempster. 3 E 394 JOURNAL OF A TOUR To James Boswell, Esq. " Sir, "I have received much pleasure, and much instruction, from perusing " The Journey" to the He- brides. *' I admire the elegance and variety of description, and the lively picture of men and manners. I always approve of the moral, often of the political, reflections. I love the benevolence of the author. *' They who search for faults, may possibly find them in this, as well as in every other work of litera- ture. " For example, the friends of the old family say that the ara of planting is placed too late, at the Union of the two kingdoms. I am known to be no friend of the old family ; yet I would place the sera of planting at the Restoration; after the murder of Charles I, had been expiated in the anarchy which succeeded it. *' Before the Restoration, few trees were planted, unless by the monastick drones : their successors, (and worthy patriots they were,) the barons, first cut down the trees, and then sold the estates. The gentleman at St. Andrews, who said that there were but two trees in Fife, ought to have added, that the elms of Balmerino were sold within these twenty years, to make pumps for the fire-engines. " In J. Major de Gestis Scotorum, L. i, C. 2, last edition, there is a singular passage : " Davidi Cranstoneo conterraneo, dum de prima " theologise licentia foret, duo ei consocii et familiares, " et mei cum eo in artibus auditores, scilicet Jacobus " Almain Senonensis, et Petrus Bruxceliensis, Prsedi- TO THE HEBRIDES. 395 ** catoris ordinis, in Sorbonae curia die Sorbonico com- " militonibus suis publice objecerunt, quod pane avena- " ceo plebeii Scoti, sicut a quodam religiose intellexe- *' rant, vescebantur, ut virum, quern cholericum nave- ^' ranty konestis salibus tentarent, qui hoc injiciari tan- ** quam patria dedecus nisus est." *' Pray introduce our countryman, Mr. Licentiate David Cranston, to the acquaintance of Mr. Johnson. " The syllogysm seems to have been this: They who feed on oatmeal are barbarians; ^ But the Scots feed on oatmeal : Ergo — The licentiate denied the minor. " I am, sir, ^* Your most obedient servant, *' Dav. Dalrymple." Newhailes, 6th February, 1775. To James Boswell, Esq. Edinburgh. Dunnichen, 16th February, 17fo. " 3iy dear Boswelly " I cannot omit a moment to return you my best thanks for the entertainment you have furnished me, my family, and guests, by the perusal of Dr. Johnson's " Journey to the Western Islands ;" — and now for my sentiments of it. — I was well entertained. His descriptions are ac- curate and vivid. He carried me on the Tour along with him. I am pleased with the justice he has done to your humour and vivacity. " The noise of the wind being all its own," is a bon-?not, that it would have been a pity to have omitted, and a robbery not to have as- cribed to its author. " There is nothing in the book, from beginning to end, that a Scotchman need to take amiss. What he savs of the countrv is true, and his observations on the 396 JOURNAL OF A TOUR people are what must naturally occur to a sensible, ob'- serving, and reflecting inhabitant of a convenient Me- tropolis, where a man on thirty pounds a year may be better accommodated with all the little wants of life, than Col or Sir Alla7i. He reasons candidly about the second sight ; but I wish he had enqijired more, before he ventured to say he even doubted of the possibility of such an unusual and useless deviation from all the known, laws of nature. Tl>e notion of the second sight I con- sider as a remnant of superstitious ignorance and cre- dulity which a philosopher will set down as such, till thq^ contrary is clearly proved, and then it will be classed among the other certain, though unaccountable, parts ©f our nature, like dreams, and— I do not know what. " In regard to the language, it has the merit of being all his ow^n. Many words of foreign extraction are used, where, I believe, common ones would do as well, espe- cially on familiar occasions. Yet I believe he could not express himself so forcibly in any other stile. I am charmed with his researches concerning the Erse lan- guage, and the antiquity of their manuscripts. I am quite convinced ; and I shall rank Ossian, and his Fingals and Oscars^ amongst the Nursery Tales, not the true history of our country, in all time to come. '^' Upon the whole, the book cannot displease, for it I^as no pretensions. The author neither says he is a Ge- ographer, nor an Antiquarian, nor very learned in the History of Scotland, nor a Naturalist, nor a Fossilist. The manners of the people, and the face of the country^ are all he attempts to describe, or seems to have thought of. Much were it to be wished, that they who have travelled into more remote, and of course more curious regions, had all possessed his good sense. Of the state of learning, his observations on Glasgow university TO THE HEBRIDES. 397 shew he has formed a very sound judgment. He un- derstands our climate too, and he has accurately observ- ed the changes, however slow and imperceptible to us, which Scotland has undergone, in consequence of the blessings of liberty and internal peace. I could have drawn my pen through the story of the old woman at St. Andrews, being the only silly thing in the book. He has taken the opportunity of engrafting into the work several good observations, which I dare say he had made upon men and things, before he set foot on Scotch ground, by which it is considerably enriched.* A long journey, like a tall May-pole, though not very beautiful itself, yet is pretty enough, when ornamented with flow- ers and garlands r it furnishes a sort of cloak-pins for hanging the furniture of your mind upon ; and whoever sets out upon a journey, without furnishing his mind previously with much study and useful knowledge, erects a May-pole in December, and puts up very useless cloak-pins. " I hope the book will induce many of his country • men to make the same jaunt, and help to intermix the more liberal part of them still more with us, and per- haps abate somewhat of that virulent antipatliy which many of them entertain against the Scotch ; who cer- tainly would never have formed those comhmathns which he takes notice of, more than tlieir ancestors, had they not been necessary for their mutual safety, at least for their success in a country where thev are treated as foreigners. They would find us not deficient, at least * Mr. Orme, one of the ablest historians of this age, is of the same opiniou. X^" He said to me, " There are in that book thoughts, wliich, by long revolution \\\ the great mind of Johnson, have been formed and pornhcl, — lik? pebbles voi'rd in the ocean '/' 398 JOURNAL OF A TOUR in point of hospitality, and they would be ashamed ever after to abuse us in the mass. " So much for the Tour. — I have now, for the first time in my life, passed a winter in the country ; and never did three months roll on with more swiftness and satisfaction. I used not only to wonder at, but pity, those whose lot condemned them to winter any where but in either of the capitals. But every place has its charms to a cheerful mind. I am busy, planting and taking measures for opening the summer campaign in farming ; and I find I have an excellent resource, when revolutions in politicks perhaps, and revolutions of the sun for certain, will make it decent for me to retreat be- hind the ranks of the more forward in life. " I am glad to hear the last was a very busy week with you. I see you as counsel in some causes, which must have opened a charming field for your humorous vein. As it is more uncommon, so I verily believe it is more useful than the moi^e serious exercise of reason ; and to a man who is to appear in publick, more eclat is to be gained, sometimes more money too, by a bon-mot than a learned speech. It is the fund of natural humour which Lord North possesses, that makes him so much a favourite of the house, and so able, because so amia- JdIc, a leader of a party. " I have now finished my Tour of Seven Pages. In what remains, I beg leave to offer my compliments, and those of ma tres cherefemme, to you and Mrs. Boswell. Pray unbend the busy brow, and frolick a little in a let- ter to, "My dear Boswell, " Your affectionate friend, " George Dempster."*' •* Evci-v redder wi'.l, I am cure,, join with me m warm adiiiiration of the trtiU' TO THE HEBRIDES. S99 I shall also present the public k with a correspond- ence with the Laird of Rasay, concerning a passage in the Journey to the Western Islands, which shews Dr. Johnson in a very amiable light. To James Boswell, Esq. Rasay, April 10th, 1775. " Dear Sir, " I take this occasion of returning you my most hearty thanks for the civilities shown to my daughter by you and Mrs. Boswell. Yet, though she has informed me that I am under this obligation, I should very pro- bably have deferred troubling you with making my ac- knowledgements at present, if I had not seen Doctor Johnson's " Journey to the Western Isles," in which he has been pleased to make a very friendly mention of my family, for which I am surely obliged to him, as being more than an equivalent for the reception you and he met with. Yet there is one paragraph I should have been glad he had omitted, which I am sure was owing to misinformation ; that is, that I had acknow- ledged M'Leod to be my chief, though my ancestors disputed the pre-eminence for a long tract of time. " I never had occasion to enter seriously on this ar- gument with the present laird or his grandfather, nor could I have any temptation to such a renunciation from either of them. I acknowledge, the benefit of being chief of a clan is in our days of very litde significancy, and to trace out the progress of this honour to the foun- patriotick writer of tWs letter. I know not which most to ajiplaud, that good sense and liberality of mind, which could see and admit the defects of his native country, to which no man is a more zealous friend ;— or that candour, which in- duced him to give just praise to the minister whom he honesth- and strenuonsJv opposed. 400 JOURNAL OF A TOUR der of a family, of any standing, would perhaps be a matter of some difficulty. " The true state of the present case is this : the M'Leod family consists of two different branches ; the M'Leods of Lewis, of which I am descended, and the M'Leods of Harris. And though the former have lost a very extensive estate by forfeiture in king James the Sixth's time, there are still several respectable families of it existing, who would justly blame me for such an unmeaning cession, when they all acknowledged me head of that family ; which though in fact it be but an ideal point of honour, is not hitherto so far disregarded in our country, but it would determine some of my friends to look on me as a much smaller man than either they or myself judge me at present to be. I will, there- fore, ask it as a favour of you to acquaint the Doctor with the difficulty he has brought me to. In travelling among rival clans such a silly tale as this might easily be whispered into the ear of a passing stranger ; but as it has no foundation in fact, I hope the Doctor will be so good as to take his own way in undeceiving the pub- lick, I principally mean my friends and connections, who will be first angry at me, and next sorry to find such an instance of my littleness recorded in a book which has a vexy fair chance of being much read. I expect you will let me know what he will write you in return, and we here beg to make offer to you and Mrs. Boswell of our most respectful compliments. I am, " Dear sir, " Your most obedient humble servant, " John M'Leod.'^ •i ■' ."^i^- TfO THE HEBRIDES. 401*' To THE Laird of Rasay. London, May 8, 1775. *' Dear Sir, " THE day before yesterday I had the honour to receive your letter, and I immediately communicated it to Dr. Johnson. He said he loved your spirit, and was exceedingly sorry that he had been the cause of the smallest uneasiness to you. There is not a more can- did man in the world than he is, when properly address- ed, as you will see from his letter to you, which I now enclose. He has allowed me to take a copy of it, and he says you may read it to your clan, or publish it if you please. Be assured, sir, that I shall take care of what he has entrusted to me, which is to have an acknowledg- ment of his errour inserted in the Edinburgh news- papers. You will, I dare say, be fully satified with Dr. Johnson's behaviour. He is desirous to know that you are ; and therefore Avhen you have read his acknow- ledgment in the papers, I beg you may write to me ; and if you choose it, I am persuaded a letter from you to the Doctdr also will be taken kind. I shall be at Edinburgh the week after next. " Any civilities which my wife and I had it in our power to shew to your daughter, Miss M'Leod, were due to her own merit, and were well repaid by her agreeable company. But I am sure I should be a very unworthy man if I did not wish to shew a grateful sense of the hospitable and genteel manner in which you were pleased to treat me. Be assured, my dear sir, that I sticiiS never forget your goodness, and the happy hours which I spent in Rasay. " You and Dr. M'Leod were both so obliging as to 3 F 402 JOURNAL OF A TOUR promise me an account in writing of all the particulars which each of you remember, concerning the transactions of 1745-6. Pray do not forget this, and be as minute and full as you can ; put down every thing ; I have a great curiosity to know as much as I can, authentically. " 1 beg that you may present my best respects to lady Rasay, my compliments to your young family, and to Dr. M'Leod; and my hearty good wishes to Mai- -colm, with whom I hope to shake hands again cordially. 1 have the honour to be, '' Dear Sir, " Your obliged and faithful humble servant, " James Boswell.''^ Advertisement, written by Dr. Johnson, and insert- ed by his desire in the Edinburgh newspapers : — Re- ferred to in the fc^egoing letter.* '^^ THE authour of the Journey to the Western Islands^ *^ having related that the M'' Lead's of Rasay ^ acknaw- " ledge the chieftainship or superiority of the M^Leods of " Sky^ finds that he has been misinformed or mistaken. *' He means in a future edition to correct his err our ^ and " wishes to be told of more ^ if more heme been discovered'"'' Dr. Johnson's Letter was as follows : To THE Laird of Rasay. " Dear Sir. " MR. Boswell has this day she^\Tl me a letter, in which you complain of a passage in " the Journey to the Hebrides." My meaning is mistaken. I did not in- tend to say that you had personally made any cession of * The original MS, is now in my possession TO THE HEBRIDES. 403 the rights of your house, or any acknowledgment of the superiority of M'Leod of Dunvegan. I only designed to express what I thought generally admitted, — ^that the house of Rasay allowed the superiority of the house of Dunvegan, Even this I now find to be erroneous, and wjU therefore omit or retract it in the next edition. " Though what I had said had been true, if it had been disagreeable to you, I should have wished it un- said ; for it is not my business to adjust precedence. As it is mistaken, I find myself disposed to correct it, both by my respect for you, and my reverence for truth. *' As I know not when the book will be re-printed, I have desired Mr. Boswell to anticipate the correction in the Edinburgh papers. This is all that can be done. " I hope I may now venture to desire that my com- pliments may be made, and my gratitude expressed to Lady Rasay, Mr. Malcolm M'Leod, Mr. Donald M'Queen, and all the gentlemen and all the ladies whom I saw in the island of Rasay ; a place which I remem- ber with too much pleasure and too much kindness, not to be sorry that my ignorance, or hasty persuasion, should, for a single moment, have violated its tran- quillity. " I beg you all to forgive an undesigned and invo- luntary injury, and to consider me as, " Sir, your most obliged, " and most humble servant, *' Sam. Johnson."* London, May 6, 1775. " It would be improper for me to boast of my own labours ; but I cannot refrain from publishing such praise * Rasay was highly gratified, and afterwards visited and dined with Dr^ Johnson, at his house in London. 404 JOURNAL OF A TOUit as 1 received from such a man as Sir William Forbes, of Pitsligo, after tlie perusal of the original manuscript of my Journal. To James BoswELL, Esq. Edinburgh, March 7, 1777. " Mt/ dear Sir, " I ought to have thanked you sooner, for your very obliging letter, and for the singular confidence you are pleased to place in me, when you trust me with such a curious and valuable deposite as the papers you have sent me.* Be assured I have a due sense of this favour, and shall faithfully and carefully return them to you. You may rely that I shall neither copy any part, nor permit the papers to be seen. " They contain a curious picture of society, and form a journal on the most instructive plan that can possibly be thought of; for I am not sure that an ordinary ob- server would become so well acquainted, either with Dr. Johnson, or with the manners of the Hebrides, by ,a^ personal intercourse, as by a perusal of your Journal. "I am, very truly, " Dear Sir, " Your most obedient, " And affectionate humble servant, • " William Forbes." When I consider how many of the persons mention- ed in this Tour are now gone to *' that undiscovered * In justice both to Sir William Forbes and myself, it is proper to mention, that the papers which were submitted to his perusal contained only an account of our Tour from the time that Dr. Johnson and I set out from Edinburgh (p. 36^, and consequently did not contain the eulogium on Sir William Forbes (p. 12)^ which he never saw till this book appeared in print; nor did he even knov,% when he wrote the above letter, that this Journal was to be published. , ijro THE HEBRIDES. , 4QS country from whose bourne no traveller returns," I feel an impression at once awful and tender. — Requiescant in pace /* It may be objected by some persons, as it has been by one of my friends, that he who has the power of thus exhibiting an exact transcript of conversations is not a desirable member of society. I repeat the answer which I made to that friend : — " Few, very few, need be afraid that their sayings will be recorded. Can it be imagined that I would take the trouble to gather what grows on every hedge, because I have collected such fruits as the Nonpareil and the Bon Chretien?" On the other hand, how useful is such a faculty, if well exercised ! To it we owe all those interesting apo. thegms and memorabilia of the ancients, which Plutarch, Xenophon, and Valerius Maximus, have transmitted to us. To it we owe all those instructive and entertaining collections which the French have made under the title of Ana, affixed to some celebrated name. To it we owe the Table Talk of Selden, the Conversation between Ben Jonson and Drummond of Hawthornden, Spence's Anec- dotes of Pope, and other valuable remains in our own language. How delighted should we have been, if thus introduced into the company of Shakspeare and of Dry den, of whom we know scarcely any thing but their admirable writings ! What pleasure would it have given us, to have known their petty habits, their characteris- tick manners, their modes of composition, and their ge- nuine opinion of preceding writers and of their contem- poraries ! All these are now irrecoverably lost. — Consi- dering how many of the strongest and most brilliant * While these sheets -were passing through the press, my valuable friend Sh Alexander Dick, mentioned in p. 33, has been added to the numlier. 406 JOURI^AL OF A TOUR effusions of exalted intellect must have perished, how much is it to be regretted that all men of distinguished wisdom and wit have not been attended by friends, of taste enough to relish, and abilities enough to register, their conversation I Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona JMulti, sed ovines illacrymabiles Urgentur^ ignotique longa Mode.) carent quia vote sacro. They whose inferiour exertions are recorded, as serving to explain or illustrate the sayings of such men, may be proud of being thus associated, and of their names being transmitted to posterity, by being append- ed to an illustrious character. Before I conclude, I think it proper to say, that I have suppressed^ every thing which I thought could really hurt any one now living. With respect to what is related, I considered it my duty " to extenuate no- thing, nor set down aught in malice ;" and with those lighter strokes of Dr. Johnson's satire, proceeding from a warmth and quickness of imagination, not from any malevolence of heart, and which, on account of their excellence, could not be omitted, I trust that they Avhp are the subject of them have good sense and good tem- per enough not to be displeased. I have only to add, that I shall ever reflect with great pleasure on a Tour, which has been the means of pre- * Having found, on a revision of this work, that, notwithstanding my best care, a few observations had escaped me, which arose from the instant impres- sion, the publication of whicli might perhaps be considered as passing the bound's of a strict decorum, I immediately ordered that they should be omitted in the pre- sent edition. If any of the same kind are yet left, it is owing to inadvertence aione, no man being more unwilling to give pain to others than I am. TO THE HEBRIDES. 407 serving so much of the enlightened and instructive con- versation of one whose virtues will, I hope, ever be an object of imitation, and whose powers of mind were so extraordinary, that ages may revolve before such a man shall again appear. • APPENDIX. No. I. In justice to the ingenious Dr. Blacklock!, /publish thejbllowing letter from him, which did not come to my hands till this edition was nearly printed off. To James Boswell, Esq. Dear Sir, HAVING lately had the pleasure of reading your account of the journey which you took with Dr. Samuel Johnson to the Western Isles, I take the liberty of trans- mitting my ideas of the conversation which happened between the doctor and myself concerning Lexicography and Poetry, which, as it is a little different from the de- lineation exhibited in the former edition of your Journal, cannot, I hope, be unacceptable ; particularly since I have been informed that a second edition of that work is now in contemplation, if not in execution : and I am still more strongly tempted to encourage that hope, from considering that, if every one concerned in the conver- sations related, were to send you what they can recoL lect of these colloquial entertainments, many curious and interesting particulars might be recovered, which the most assiduous attention could not observe, nor the most I* 3 G 410 APPENDIX. tenacious memory retain. A little reflection, sir, will convince you, that there is not an axiom in Euclid more intuitive nor more evident than the Doctor's assertion that poetry was of much easier execution than lexico- graphy. Any mind therefore endowed with common sense, must have been extremely absent from itself, if it discovered the least astonishment from hearing that a poem might be written with much more facility than the same quantity of a dictionary. The real cause of my surprise was, what appeared to me much more para- doxical, that he could write a sheet of a dictionary with as much pleasure as a sheet of poetry. He acknowledged, indeed, that the latter was much easier than the former. For in the one case, books and a desk were requisite ; in the other, you might compose when lying in bed, or walking in the fields, &c. He did not, however, descend to explain, nor to this moment can I comprehend, how^ the labours of a mere Philologist, in the most refined sense of that term, could give equal pleasure with the exercise of a mind replete with elevated conceptions, and pathetic ideas, while taste, fancy, and intellect were deeply enamoured of nature, and in full exertion. You may likewise, perhaps, remember, that when I com- plained of the ground which Scepticism in religion and morals was continually gaining, it did not appear to be on my own account, as my private opinions upon these important subjects had long been inflexibl}^ determined. What I then deplored, and still deplore, was the unhap- py influence which that gloomy hesitation had, not only upon particular characters, but even upon life in gene- ral ; as being equally the bane of action in our present state, and of such consolations as we might derive from the hopes of a future. APPENDIX. ^^ I have the pleasure of remaining with sincere esteem and respect, Dear Sir, Your most obedient, humble servant, Thomas Blaqklock. Edinburgh, November 12^ 1785. I am very happy to find that Dr. Blacklock's appa- rent uneasiness on the subject of Scepticism was not on his own account, (as I supposed,) but from a benevo- lent concern for the happiness of mankind. With re- spect, however, to the question concerning poetry, and composing a dictionary, I am confident that my state of Dr. Johnson's position is accurate. One may miscon- ceive the motive by which a person is induced to dis- cuss a particular topick (as in the case of Dr. Black- lock's speaking of Scepticism ;) but an assertion, like that made by Dr. Johnson, cannot be easily mistaken. And indeed, it seems not very probable, that he who so pathetically laments the drudgery to which the unhappy lexicographer is doomed, and is known to have written his splendid imitation of Juvenal, with astonishing ra- pidity, should have had " as much pleasure in writing a sheet of a dictionary as a sheet of poetry." Nor can I concur with the ingenious writer of the foregoing letter, in thinking it an axiom as evident as any in Euclid, that *' poetry is of easier execution than lexicography." I have no doubt that Bailey, and the '^ mighty blunder- buss of law," Jacob, wrote ten pages of their respective Dictionaries with more ease than they could have writ- ten five pages of poetry. If this book should again be reprinted, I shall with the utmost readiness correct any errours I may have com- mitted, in stating conversations, provided it can be clear- 412 APPENDIX, ly shewn to me that I have been inaccutate. But I am slow to believe, (as I have elsewhere observed,) that any man's memory at the distance of several years, can pre- serve facts or sayings with such fidelity as may be done by writing them down when they are recent : and I beg it may be remembered, that it is not upon memory^ but upon what was written at the time, that the authenticity of my Journal rests. ■iv APPENDIX, ^'18 ■■'"'**''''' No. IL The following verses, written by Sir Alexander (now Lord) Macdonald, and addressed and presented to Dr. Johnson, at Armidale, in the Isle of Sky, should have appeared in the proper place, if the authour of this Journal had been possessed of them ; but this edition was almost printed oiF, when he was acci- dentally furnished with a copy by a friendL. Viator, o qui nostra per tequora Visurus agros Skiaticos venis, En te salutantes tributim Undique conglomerantur oris Donaldiani^ — quotquot in insults Comfiescit arctis limitibus mare ; Alitque jamdudum, ac alendos Piscibus indigenas fovebit . Ciere Jluctus siste, ProceUiger^ JVec tu laborans perge, precor, ratis, JVe conjugem plangat marita, A'e doleat- soboles parentem. JSfec te vicissim peniteat virum Luxisse ;—'vestro scimus ut tsstuant In corde luctantes dolores, Cumferiant inopina corpusi Quidni I peremptum clade tuentibus Plus semper illo qui moritur pati Datur, doloris dum profundos Pervia mens aperit recessus. Valete luctus ; — hinc lacrymabiles Arcete visus c—^ibimus, ibimus Superbienti qua theatro Fingalie fnemorantur autx. 414 APPENDIX. Illustris hosfies ! mox sfiatiabere Qua mens ruince ducta meatibus Gaudebit explorare ccetus Buccina qua cecinit triumfihos Auditi ? resurgens afiiral anhelitu Dux tcsitato, suscitat efficax Poeta manesy ingruitque Vi solitd redivivus horror. Ahtena quassans tela gravi manu Sic ibat atrox Ossiani pater : Quiescat urnd, stet Jidelis * Phersonius vigil adfavillam THE ENB .0, "^^'^^''/ ^^^^^^V %'^^?^*/ ' J !*»'■» » ^^^4^^