mmmi' 

 
 BOSWELLIANA.
 
 ' ^r^^'yn. 
 
 Vrnm an oriMnal- DKetch "by Laniton. .
 
 BOSWELLIANA 
 
 THE COMMONPLACE BOOK 
 
 JAMES BOSWELL 
 
 WITH A MEMOIR AND ANNOTATIONS 
 
 Eev. CHARLES ROGERS, LL.D., 
 
 HISTORIOGRAPHER OF THE ROYAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY, FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY 
 
 OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF 
 
 THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NEW ENGLAND. 
 
 AND INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 
 
 EIGHT HONOURABLE LORD HOUGHTON 
 
 LONDON 
 PRINTED FOR THE GRAMPIAN CLUB. 
 
 1874
 
 3525- 
 2i93 
 
 OAniA J3ASBAEA 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE GRAMPIAN CLUB. 
 
 His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, Patron. 
 
 His Grace the Duke of ArgyU, K.T. 
 His Grace the Duke of Athole. 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Aberdeen. 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Airlie. 
 Sir Robert John Abercrombie, Bart. , of 
 
 Birkenbog. 
 General Sir John Aitchison, K.C.B., 
 
 G.C.B. 
 The University of Aberdeen. 
 Robert Vans Agnew, Esq. , of Sheuchan, 
 
 M.P. 
 Lieut. -Colonel "W. R. E. Alexander. 
 Lieut. -Colonel A. Stewart AUan. 
 John Addis, Esq. 
 Robert Barclay Allardice, Esq. 
 George Anderson, Esq. 
 John Anderson, Esq. 
 James Anderson, Esq., Q.C. 
 Peter Anderson, Esq. 
 Edward Adamson, Esq., M.D. 
 J. W. Adamson, Esq. 
 Francis Aberdein, Esq., of Keithock. 
 "Walter Armstrong, Esq. 
 F. S. Arnott, Esq., C.B. 
 John Alton, Esq. 
 Charles J. Alexander, Esq. 
 John Anderson, Esq. , LL. D. , C. E . 
 John Macaulay Amaud, Esq. 
 
 The Most Hon. the Marquess of Bute. 
 Right Hon. Lord Borthwick. 
 
 Right Hon. Lord Burleigh. 
 Colonel Balfour of Balfour. 
 Arthur James Balfour, Esq. 
 John Balfour, Esq., of Balbirnie. 
 Robert Brown, Esq., of Underwood Park. 
 Sir Alexander Bannerman, Bart. 
 Lieut. -General Walter John Browne, 
 
 C.B. 
 The Rev. G. R. Badenoch, LL.D., 
 
 F.R.H.S. 
 Joseph Bain, Esq., F.S.A. Scot. 
 Edward Chisholm Batten, Esq., M.A., 
 
 F.R.S.E., of Aigas. 
 Richard Bennet, Esq. 
 Patrick Buchan, Esq., Ph.D. 
 John Buchanan, Esq., LL.D. 
 W. G. Beattie, Esq. 
 John Blackie, Esq. 
 Mark Boyd, Esq., of Merton Hall. 
 John Boyd, Esq., M.D. 
 Rev. George Weare Braikenridge, F.S.A. 
 
 Scot. 
 Richard Rolt Brash, Esq. M.R.I.A. 
 A. J. Dennistoun Brown, Esq., of Bal- 
 
 loch Castle. 
 Adam Brown, Esq. 
 John Brown, Esq. 
 James William Baillie, Esq., of Culter 
 
 AUers. 
 Alexander Beattie, Esq., J.P. 
 Colin Rae Brown, Esq.
 
 VI 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE GRAMPIAN CLUB. 
 
 Walter Berry, Esq., F.S.A. Scot. 
 
 William Blewitt, Esq. 
 
 John Buchanan, Esq. 
 
 James Brunlees, Esq. 
 
 William Cunliffe Brooks, Esq., M.P. 
 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Camperdown. 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Cawdor. 
 Right Hon. Lord ClintDn. 
 Thomas Leslie Melville Cartwright, Esq- 
 Major Pemberton Campbell. 
 Captain Campbell. 
 James Campbell, Esq. 
 Rev. Francis Cameron, D.D. 
 Charles Clark, Esq. 
 J. Ross Coulthart, Esq., F.S.A. Scot. 
 George Cruikshank, Esq., Honorary. 
 Skene Craig, Esq. 
 
 Benjamin Bond Cabbell, Esq., F.R.G.S. 
 Benjamin Bond Cabbell, Esq., jun. 
 Thomas Constable, Esq. 
 R. H. Campbell, Esq. 
 R. Campbell, Esq. 
 Lieut. -Col on(!l D. Campbell. 
 F. R. Campbell, Esq. 
 David A. Carnegie, Esq. 
 Colonel Charles Cheape. 
 William Cook, Esq. 
 A. Angus CroU, Esq. 
 J. A. Chalmers, Esq., F.S.A. Scot. 
 F. de Chauraont, Esq. 
 Captain A. M'Ra Chisholm. 
 George Christie, Esq. 
 Jonathan Henry Christie, Esq. 
 James Crichton, Esq., Kilbryde Castle. 
 Frederick William Cosens, Esq. 
 Thomas Crai<; Christie, Esq., of Bedley. 
 George T. Clark, Esq., of Dowlais. 
 T. Moir Clark, Esq. 
 John Coutts, Esq. 
 George R. Cox, Esq. 
 Colonel John H. Corsar. 
 Captain George Frederick Russell Colt. 
 The Chisholm. 
 
 Chetham Library, Manchester. 
 Charles Chalmers, ilsq. 
 AndcrBon Cooper, Esij. 
 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Dalhousie, K.T. 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Dunmore. 
 Duncan Davidson, Esq., of Tulloch. 
 George Stirling Home Drummond, Esq., 
 
 of Blair Drummond. 
 General John Drummond, F.R.G.S. 
 Alexander Duncan, Esq. 
 W. A. Duncan, Esq. 
 James AV. Davidson, Esq. 
 John Arthur Dalziel, Esq. 
 A. G. Dallas, Esq., of Dunain. 
 Peter Denny, Esq. 
 Edward Octavius Douglas, Esq., of 
 
 Killichassie. 
 James Davidson, Esq., of Ruchell. 
 Hector Drysdale, Esq. 
 George H. Dickson, Esq. 
 William Dickson, Esq., J.P., F.S.A., 
 
 F.S.A. Scot. 
 A. H. Dennistoun, Esq. 
 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Elgin. 
 Right Hon. the Lord Elibank. 
 William Euing, Esq., F.R.S.E., F.S.A. 
 
 Scot. 
 Andrew Edgar, Esq., LL.D. 
 The University of Edinburgh. 
 John Elphinstone, Esq. 
 Miss Mary Caroline Edgar. 
 Logan B. Edgar, Esq. 
 William Erskine, Esq. 
 John Alexander Ewen, Esq. 
 James D. Edgar, Esq., M.P., Canada. 
 Jonathan Edgar, Esq. 
 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Fife. 
 
 Sir William G. N. T. Fairfax, Bart. 
 
 Robert Francis Fairlie, Esq. 
 
 A. Falconer, Esq. 
 
 Thomas Falconer, Esq. 
 
 James R. Ferguson, Esq. 
 
 Sir William Forbes, Bart., of Craigiovar. 
 
 Peter Forbes, Esq. 
 
 David P"'orsyth, Esq. 
 
 J. W. Fleming, E.-^q., F.R.C.S. 
 
 Robert Ferguson, Esq.
 
 MEMBERS OF THE GRAMPIAN CLUB. 
 
 VH 
 
 Robert 0. Farquharson, Esq., F.S.A., 
 of Haughton. 
 
 Francis Garden Fraser, Esq., of Find- 
 rack. 
 
 F. Mackenzie Fraser, Esq. 
 
 "William Fraser, Esq., Edinburgh. 
 
 John Fowler, Esq., of Braemore. 
 
 William Nathaniel Fraser, Esq., of 
 Tomaveen. 
 
 James Fletcher, Esq. 
 
 William Fraser, Esq., London. 
 
 Peter S. Fraser, Esq. 
 
 Eight Hon. the Earl of Glasgow. 
 Lieut.-General Sir J. Hope Grant, 
 
 G.C.B. 
 University of Glasgow. 
 William Galbraith, Esq. 
 Thomas L. Galbraith, Esq. 
 H. J. Galbraith, Esq. 
 J. Graham Girvan, Esq. 
 Lieut. -Colonel G. Gardyne. 
 Samuel Gordon, Esq. 
 J. Chisholm Gooden, Esq. 
 Peter Graham, Esq. 
 James Graham, Esq. 
 AV. Cosmo Gordon, Esq., of Fyvie. 
 Alexander Gordon, Esq. 
 George J. R. Gordon, Esq., yr., of Ellon. 
 John Gordon, Esq. 
 James Guthrie, Esq. 
 Captain Alexander Graeme, R.N. 
 E. W. Garland, Esq. 
 Arbuthnot C. Guthrie, Esq., of Duart. 
 Colonel C. J. Guthrie, of Scots Calder. 
 C. Seaton James Guthrie, Esq., Jun., 
 
 of Scots Calder. 
 John Gray, Esq., Q.C. 
 Thomas Gray, Esq. 
 
 The Most Hon. the Marquis of Huntly. 
 The Right Hon. the Earl of Hopetoun. 
 The Right Hon. the Earl of Home. 
 Right Hon. Lord Herries. 
 Right Hon. Lord Houghton, F.S.A. 
 Rev. J. 0. Haldane. 
 
 Peter Hall, Esq. 
 
 Archibald Hume, Esq. 
 
 Robert Hay, Esq., of Nunraw. 
 
 James Henderson, Esq. 
 
 Archibald Hamilton, Esq., of South 
 
 Barrow. 
 H. W. Hope, Esq., of Luffness. 
 Major John Fergusson Home, of Bas- 
 
 sendean. 
 William Crichton Hepburn, Esq. 
 Alexander Howe, Esq., W.S. 
 Charles Edward Hamilton, Esq. 
 Henry Huggins, Esq. 
 William H. Hill, Esq. 
 Charles A. Howall, Esq. 
 John Hannan, Esq. 
 
 The Rev. J. Brodie Innes, ot Milton 
 Brodie. 
 
 Richard Johnson, Esq. 
 
 James Auldjo Jamieson, Esq., W.S. 
 
 Andrew Jamieson, Esq. 
 
 Colonel W. Ross King, of Tertowie, 
 
 F.R.G.S., F.S.A. Scot. 
 Rev. William A. Keith, M.A. 
 Thomas Kennedy, Esq. 
 George R. Kinloch, Esq. 
 John Roger Kinninmont, Esq. 
 George Middleton Kiell, Esq. 
 Frederick Baker Kirby, Esq. 
 
 The Right Hon. the Earl of Lauderdale. 
 Alexander Laing, Esq., F.S.A. Scot. 
 J. W. Larking, Esq. 
 James Forbes Leith, Esq., of White- 
 
 haugh. 
 John Lambert, Esq. 
 Rev. James Legge, D.D., LL.D. 
 William Leask, Esq. 
 J. Lenox, Esq. 
 James Lawrie, Esq. 
 Alexander Leslie, Esq. 
 James W. Laidlay, Esq., F.R.S.E., 
 
 F.R.S. Scot. 
 James Lawrence, Esq.
 
 Vlll 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE GRAMPIAN CLUB. 
 
 David Laing, Esq., LL.D., F.S.A. Scot., 
 
 Honorary. 
 SVilliam Lidderdale, Esq. 
 Hugh G. Lumsden, Esq., of Clova. 
 
 Right Hon. the Earl of ISIar. 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Minto. 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Moray. 
 Keith Stewart Mackenzie, Esq., of 
 
 Seaforth. 
 William Alexander Mackinnon, Esq., 
 
 C.B. 
 P. Mackinnon, Esq. 
 The Mackintosh. 
 Donald Maclntyre, Esq. 
 Alexander Mackintosh, Esq. 
 Angus Mackintosh, Esq., of Holme. 
 Captain Colin Mackenzie. 
 William Menelaus, Esq. 
 AVilliam MacCash, Esq. 
 A. M'Culloch, Esq. 
 Charles Eraser Mackintosh, Esq., of 
 
 Drummond, M.P. 
 Donald Maclnnes, Esq. 
 Alexander Maclnnes, Esq. 
 Hugh A. Mackay, Esq. 
 R. B. E. Macleod, Esq., of Cadholl. 
 T. Comyn Macgregor, Esq. , of Brediland. 
 Hugh Edmonstoune Montgomerie, Esq., 
 
 F.S.A. 
 John D. Macdonald, Esq.,M.D., F.R.S. 
 J. S. Muschct, Esq., M.D., of Birkhill. 
 Sir James Ranald Martin, C.B., F.R.S. 
 W. H. Macfarlane, Esq. 
 George Macfarlane, Esq. 
 F. W. Malcolm, Esq. 
 John Malcolm, Esq. 
 I. McBurney, LL.D., F.S.A. Scot., 
 
 F.E.LS. 
 William Thomas Morrison, Esq. 
 John Whitefoord Mackenzie, W.S. 
 Colonel Macdonald Macdonald, of St. 
 
 Mai tins. 
 Sir Robert Mcnzies, Bart., of Castle 
 
 Menzii'S. 
 Sir Kenneth Mackenzie, Bart. 
 Robert W. Mylne, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S., 
 F.S.A. Scot. 
 
 Rev W. 0. Macfarlane, M.A. Oxon. 
 
 Sir William Maxwell, Bart., of Monreith. 
 
 F. Maxwell, Esq., of Gribton. 
 
 J. Milne, Esq. 
 
 James Cornwall Miller, Esq. 
 
 Captain C. Munro, of Foulis. 
 
 Alexander B. M'Gregor, Esq. 
 
 L. Mackinnon, Esq. 
 
 John M 'Rae, Esq. 
 
 David W. Murray, Esq. 
 
 James D. Marwick, Esq. 
 
 John M'Ewan, Esq. 
 
 David P. M'Euen, Esq. 
 
 Peter Handyside M'Kerlie, Esq. 
 
 Robert Mure M'Kerrell, Esq. 
 
 D. Macneil, Esq. 
 
 J. B. Murdoch, Esq. 
 
 J. W. M'Cardie, Esq., of Newpark, 
 
 F.R.H.S. 
 James Maclaren, Esq. 
 William M'Combie, Esq., of Easter- 
 
 skene. 
 John C. M'Naughton, Esq., of Kilellan. 
 George M'Corquodale, Esq. 
 Colin James Mackenzie, Esq. 
 Graeme R. Mercer, Esq., of Gorthy. 
 
 Right Hon. Lord Napier and Ettrick. 
 The Hon. Lord Neaves. 
 W. J. Newman, Esq. 
 James Neish, Esq. , of Laws. 
 Hugh Neilson, Esq. 
 
 Donald Ogilvie, Esq., of Clova. 
 Thomas L. Kington Oliphant, Esq., of 
 
 Gask, F.S.A. 
 Sir J. P. Orde, Bart., of Kilmory. 
 Dr. William O'Donnovan. 
 James G. Orchar, Esq. 
 Colonel J. Oliphant. 
 
 R. W. Cochran Patrick, Esq. , of Lady- 
 land 
 Sir J. Nool Paton, R.A. 
 James Park, Esq. 
 Hugh Pcnfold, Esq. 
 Cornelius Paine, Esq. 
 W. S. Purves, Esq.
 
 MEMBERS OF THE GRAMPIAN CLUB. 
 
 IX 
 
 Alexander Pringle, Esq., of Yair. 
 
 His Grace the Duke of Richmond. 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Rosebery. 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Eosslyn. 
 John Rae, Esq., LL.D., F.S.A. 
 Lieut. -Colonel John Ramsay, of Barra. 
 "William Rider, Esq, 
 Patrick Rankin, Esq., jun. 
 Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D., F.R.H.S., 
 
 F.S.A. Scot., Secretary, Grampian 
 
 Lodge, Forest Hill, S.E. 
 E. William Robertson, Esq. , of Chilcote. 
 Edward J. Reed, Esq., C.B., M.P. 
 James Robb, Esq. 
 
 Andrew Ramsay, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S. 
 Rev. David Ogilvj' Ramsay. 
 Major Rose, of Kilravock. 
 George AV. H. Ross, Esq. 
 James Ross, Esq. 
 
 Robert Hamilton Ramsay, Esq., M.D. 
 The Hon. Edward S. Russell. 
 George Russell, Esq. 
 William Reid, Esq., W.S., F.S.A. 
 
 Scot. 
 R. Milne Redhead, Esq., F.L.S., 
 
 F.R.G.S. 
 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Seafield, 
 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Strathmore. 
 
 Right Hon. the Earl of Stair. 
 
 Right Hon. Lord Saltoun. 
 
 Right Hon. Sir John Stuart, F.S.A. 
 
 Scot. 
 The Hon. Sir Charles Farquhar Shand. 
 George Edwin Swithinbank, LL.D., 
 
 F.S.A. Scot. 
 William H. Smith, Esq. 
 Alexander Smith, Esq. 
 Captain Robert Stenart, of Westwood. 
 David Semple, Esq., F. S. A. Scot. 
 Thomas Stratton, Esq., M.D. 
 Charles A. Stewart, Esq., of Achnacone. 
 James Stillie, Esq. 
 T. W. Swinburne, Esq. 
 Alexander B. Stewart, Esq. 
 Thomas Sopwith, Esq., F. R. S., F.R.H. S. 
 
 Charles Stewart, Esq., R.N., F.S.A. 
 
 Scot. 
 A. Campbell Swinton, Esq., F.S.A. 
 
 Scot., of Kimmerghame. 
 Charles Shaw, Esq. 
 Sion College, London. 
 Robert R. Stodart, Esq. 
 C. J. Stewart, Esq. 
 George Stewart, Esq. 
 William Stewart, Esq. 
 H. King Spark, E.-^q. 
 John Shand, Esq., W.S. 
 James Frederick Spurr, Esq. 
 
 The Right Hon. Lord Talbot de Mala- 
 
 hide. 
 Sir Walter Oalverly Trevelyan, Bart., 
 
 F.S.A., F.G.S., F.S.A. Scot. 
 The Honourable Society of the Middle 
 
 Temple. 
 Alexander Tod, Esq., F.S.A. Scot. 
 Charles Tennant, Esq. 
 Gilbert Rainey Tennent, Esq. 
 Robert Tennant, Esq. 
 W. J. Taylor, Esq., of Glenbarry. 
 Thomas Aubrey Turner, Esq. 
 John Turnbull, Esq. 
 John Tweed, Esq. 
 
 Andrew Usher, Esq. 
 
 Right Hon. Lord Wharncliffe. 
 Sir Albert William Woods, F.S.A. 
 
 Rev. John G. Wright, LL.D. 
 
 George Ferguson Wilson, Esq., F.R.S. 
 
 William Thorburn Wilson, F.S.A. Scot. 
 
 Archibald Weir, Esq., M.D. 
 
 Thomas A. Wise, Esq., M.D., F.S.A. 
 
 Scot., F.R.B.S. 
 J. P. Wise, Esq., Rostellan Castle. 
 Miss Catherine Mary Watson. 
 Fountaine Walker, Esq., of P'oyers. 
 J. A. Woods, Esq. 
 James Wingate, Esq. 
 Edward Wilson, Esq.
 
 MEMBERS OF THE GRAMPIAN CLUB. 
 
 Charles H. H. "Wilson, Esq., of Dalnair. 
 Mrs. W. Wilson. 
 Andrew Wark, Esq. 
 Rev. W. H. Wylie. 
 
 Allan A. Maconochie "Wehvood, Esq., 
 of Meadowbank. 
 
 T. "W. Spencer "Waugh, Esq. 
 Randolph Gordon Erskine Wemyss, 
 
 Esq., of Wemyss and Torrie. 
 Mrs. Wilkie. 
 Evan C. Sutherland Walker, Esq., of 
 
 Skibo.
 
 PEE FACE. 
 
 James Boswell had not, by publishing his great 
 work, the Life of Dr. Samuel Johnson, completed his 
 literary plans. He preserved the letters he received 
 from notable persons, and retained copies of his own. 
 For many years he kept a journal, in which he recorded 
 not merely his conversations with Dr. Johnson, but the 
 diurnal occurrences of his own life. Respecting his 
 journal, in a letter to his friend Mr. Temple, dated 22nd 
 May, 1789, he writes : — "You have often told me that 
 I was the most thinking man you ever knew; it is cer- 
 tainly so as to my own life. I am continually conscious, 
 continually looking back or looking forward, and won- 
 dering how I shall feel in situations which I anticipate 
 in fancy.. My journal will afford materials for a very 
 curious narrative. I assure you I do not now live with 
 a view to have surprising incidents, though I ov/n I am 
 desirous that my life should tell." Boswell evidently 
 intended to adapt the contents of his journal to an 
 autobiography ; his early death precluded the in- 
 tention. 
 
 Besides a journal, Boswell kept in a portfolio a
 
 Xll PREFACE. 
 
 i- 
 
 quantity of loose quarto sheets, inscribed on each page 
 BoswELLiANA. In certain of these sheets the pages 
 are denoted by numerals in the ordinary fashion ; an- 
 other portion is numbered by the folios ; while a 
 further portion consists of loose leaves and letter- 
 backs. The greater part of the entries are made so 
 carefully as to justify the belief that the author 
 intended to embody the whole in a volume of literary 
 anecdotes. 
 
 At Boswell's death his portfolio was sold along with 
 the books contained in his house in London, It came 
 into the possession of John Hugh Smyth Pigott, Esq., 
 of Brockley HaU, Somersetshire, an indefatigable book 
 collector. On Mr. Pigott's death in 1861 the volume, 
 bound in russia, was sold along with the stores of the 
 Brockley library. Purchased by Mr, Thomas Kerslake, 
 bookseller in Bristol, it was afterwards sold by him to 
 Lord Houghton. By his lordship it was lately handed 
 to the Grampian Club, with a view to publication. 
 
 Boswell's commonplace-book exhibits some of the 
 author's weaknesses, but is on the whole a valuable 
 repertory. The social talk of leading persons during 
 the latter part of the century is graphically depicted. 
 Considerable light is thrown on the character of indi- 
 viduals respecting whom every fragment of authentic 
 information is treasiu-ed with interest. In preparing 
 the commonplace-book for the press the Editor has 
 omitted a few entries which transgressed on decorum. 
 He has generally retained fclie author's orthography.
 
 PREFACE. Xlll 
 
 The Memoir has been prepared with a desire to 
 depict the author's history in his own words. Letters 
 to correspondents have been copiously introduced. Of 
 these a most interesting portion have been obtained 
 from the volume of Boswell's Letters to Mr. Temple, 
 published by Mr. Bentley, under the care of Mr. 
 Francis. It is curious to remark that these letters, 
 like the commonplace-book, left the family of the owner, 
 and were accidentally discovered in the shop of a trader 
 at Boulogne. 
 
 The Editor cannot venture to enumerate all the kind 
 friends who have aided his inquiries. He has been 
 indebted to Lord Houghton for important particulars. 
 The representatives of Thomas David Boswell, the bio- 
 grapher's brother, and of his uncle, Dr. John Boswell, 
 have been most polite and obliging in their communica- 
 tions. The Rev. W. H. Wylie has kindly furnished 
 Boswell's address to the Ayrshire constituency. 
 
 Grampian Lodge, 
 
 Forest Hill, Surrey, . 
 May, 1874.
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 
 By Lord Houghton. 
 
 There is no word of vindication or appreciation to be 
 added to Mr. Carlyle's estimate of the character and 
 merits of James Boswell. That judgment places him 
 so high that the most fantastic dream of his own self- 
 importance would have been fully realized, and yet 
 there is no disguise of his follies or condonation of his 
 vices. We understand at once the justice and the 
 injustice of his contemporaries, and while we are amused 
 at the thought of their astonishment could the future 
 fame of the object of so much banter and rude criticism 
 have been revealed to them, we doubt whether, had 
 we been in their place, our misapprehension and depre- 
 ciation would not have been still greater than theirs. 
 
 It was the object of Boswell's life to connect his 
 own name with that of Dr. Johnson ; the one is now 
 identified with the other. He aspired to transmit 
 to future time the more transitory and evanescent
 
 xvi INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 forms of Johnson's genius ; he has become the re- 
 pository of all that is most significant and permanent. 
 The great " Dictionary " is superseded by wider and 
 more accurate linguistic knowledge ; the succinct and 
 sententious biographies are replaced, where their subjects 
 are sufiBciently important, by closer criticisms and by 
 antiquarian details, while in the majority of his subjects 
 the Lives and Works of the writers are alike forgotten. 
 The "Rambler" and the "Idler" stand among the 
 British Essayists, dust-worn and silent ; and though a 
 well-informed Englishman woidd recognise a quotation 
 from " Rasselas " or " London," he would hardly be ex- 
 pected to remember the context."'^ But the "John- 
 soniad " keeps fresh among us the noble image of the 
 moralist and the man, and when a philosopher of our 
 time says pleasantly of Boswell what Heinrich Heine 
 
 * I happened however to be present on an occasion when a quotation 
 from Dr. Johnson served as a special ilhistration of the infallible 
 memory and rapid intuition of a man of letters in whose distinction 
 Scotland has a considerable share. It was in the house of a lady of 
 literary and social importance in her day, who was fond of displaying 
 her disregard of religious decencies. At one end of the table the 
 party were talking of a remarkable fall of some fronts of houses in 
 Tottenham-court-road, leaving the rooms open to the street in all 
 their usual conditions. At the other the hostess was tracing i-esem- 
 Ijlances between jNformonism and Christianity, with peculiar applica- 
 tion to their founders. Mr, Macaulay, seated in the middle, leant 
 over to Dean Milman opposito, and said in a low tone, "You re- 
 member Johnson's London, — 
 
 'Here falling houses thunder on j'our head. 
 And here a female Atheist talks you dead. ' "
 
 ■ INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XVll 
 
 said gravely of Goethe, that he measures the literary 
 faculty of his friends by the extent of their appreciation 
 of his idol, it is to a composite creation of the genius of 
 the master and of the sympathetic talent of the disciple 
 that is paid this singular homage. For it was assuredly 
 a certain analogy of character that fitted Boswell to be 
 the friendly devotee and intellectual servitor of Dr. John- 
 son, and the resemblances of style and manner which are 
 visible even in the fragments brought together in this 
 volume cannot be regarded as parodies or conscious imi- 
 tations, but rather as illustrations of the mental har- 
 mony which enabled the reporter to produce with such 
 signal fidelity, in the words of another, his own ideal of 
 all that was good and great. 
 
 "Elia," with his charming othersidedness, writes, in 
 one place, " I love to lose myself in other men's minds," 
 and in another, "the habit of too constant intercourse 
 with spirits above you instead of raising you, keeps 
 you down ; too frequent doses of original thinking from 
 others restrains what lesser portion of that faculty you 
 may possess in your own. You get entangled in another 
 man's mind, even as you lose yourself in another man's 
 ground ; you are walking with a tall varlet, whose 
 strides outpace yours to lassitude." Both observations 
 are true, and instances are not wanting of the spirit 
 of reverence and the habit of waiting on the words 
 and thoughts of those who are regarded as the spokes- 
 men of authority, emasculating the self-reliance and
 
 XVm INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 thralling the free action of superior men. This is 
 especially observable in political life, where a certain 
 surrender of independence is indispensable to success, 
 but where, if carried too far, it tends to dwarf the 
 stature and plane down the beneficial varieties of public 
 characters. But there will always be many forces that 
 militate against this courtliness in the Republic of 
 Letters ; leading men will have their clique, and too 
 often like to be kings of their company, but more 
 damage is done to themselves than to those who serve 
 them, and there is little fear of too rapid a succession of 
 Boswells or Eckermanns. 
 
 In these days of ready and abundant writing the 
 value of Conversation, as the oral tradition of social 
 intercourse, is not what it was in times when speech was 
 almost the exclusive communicator of intelligence be- 
 tween man and man. Yet there will ever be an appre- 
 ciation of the peculiar talent which reproduces with 
 vivacity those fabrics of the hour, and gives to the 
 passing lights and shades of thought an artistic and 
 picturesque coherence. This is the product of a genial 
 spirit itself delighting in the verbal fray, and of a 
 society at once familiar and intellectual. We have 
 from other sources abundant details of the vivacity 
 of the upper classes of the Scottish community in the 
 latter half of the last century, and the beginning of 
 the present. It had the gaiety which is the due re- 
 laxation of stern and solid temperaments, and the
 
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 ^^€\(^^J^^^ ^^^^^'■^►'»»-^^:^ ,?Vz>A /2t<M_ ^/^J^ 
 
 
 ^v^...^ 2^^"^ /^Aii^ ^ ^^ 
 
 FAC-SIMILE OF A PAGE OF BOSWELLS COMMONPLACE BOOK 
 
 IN THE POSSESSION OF LORD HOUGHTON.
 
 INTRODUCTORY KL\MARKS. XIX 
 
 humour which is the genuine reverse of a deep sense 
 of realities and an inflexible logic. It was intem- 
 perate, not with the intemperance of other northern 
 nations, to whom intoxication is either a diversion to 
 the torpor of the senses, or a narcotic applied by a 
 benevolent nature to an anxious and painful existence, 
 but with a conviviality which physical soundness and 
 moral determination enabled them to reconcile with 
 the sharpest attention to their material interests and 
 with the hardest professional work. 
 
 Scotland had had the remarkable destiny in its earlier 
 history of assimilating to itself the elements of a finer 
 civilisation without losing its independence or national 
 character ; and it had even interchanged with the con- 
 tinent of Europe various influences of manners and 
 speech. It had thus retained a certain intellectual self- 
 sufficiency, especially in its relations with English society 
 and literature, which never showed itself more distinctly 
 than in its estimate of Dr. Johnson and of his connection 
 with Bos well. In the pamphlets, and verses, and pictures 
 of the time, Boswell appears as a monomaniac, and John- 
 son as an impostor. The oblong quarto of Caricatures 
 which followed their journey to the Hebrides shows that 
 BosweU not only did not gain any favour from his 
 countrymen, by introducing among them the writer, 
 who, however little understood in his entire worth, 
 nevertheless held a high place among English wits and 
 men of letters, but brought abundant ridicule on himself,
 
 XX INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 his family, and his friend. It required all Boswell's in- 
 vincible irood humour to withstand the sarcasm that 
 assailed him. Dr. Johnson certainly repaid with in- 
 terest the prejudice and ill-will he encountered, but it 
 remains surprising that so good and intelligent a company 
 did not better recognise so great a man. We did not so 
 receive Bums and Walter Scott. The agreeable re- 
 miniscences of Lord Cockburn and Dean Ramsay have 
 given us the evening lights of the long day of social 
 brightness which Scotland, and especially Edinburgh, 
 enjoyed ; and if tliis pleasantness is now a thing of the 
 past, the citizens of the modern Athens have only shared 
 the lot of other sections of mankind, even of France, 
 par excellence, the country of Conversation.'"" 
 
 * This opinion receives an accidental confirmation of its events by 
 the publication of the Life of Sir Gilbert Eliot — a work highly 
 honourable to a Scottish house by the dignity of its records and the 
 talent of their reproduction. This cannot be better expressed than in 
 the words of Lady Minto, writing from Edinburgh, February 21, 
 1802:— 
 
 " This country has arrived at the true pitch of comfort and happi- 
 ness. The people are full of information, are natural, unassuming, 
 and social, but with a great mixture of occujjation. People meet 
 together to be pleased, cheerful, and easy ; even the Scotch pride has 
 its uses by putting the poor often on an equal footing with the rich. 
 A Douglas or a Scott would consider himself on a par with per- 
 sons of the highest title and rank ; their education is equally good, 
 their society the same, their spirit and love of their country possibly 
 much greater. Almost every family can boast of heroes in some 
 generation, which excites emulation ; and nothing is so uncommon as 
 to see idle men and listless manners. All is energy, and every one
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XXI 
 
 This decadence in the art and practice of the com- 
 munication of ideas, and in the cultivation of facile and 
 coloured language, is commonly attributed to the wide 
 extension of literature and the press, which give to every 
 man all the knowdedge of matters of interest which he 
 can require without the intervention of a fellow-creature. 
 It may be that men may now read and think too much 
 to talk, but the change is, perhaps, rather the effect of 
 certain alterations in the structure of society itself, ac- 
 companied by the fastidiousness that tries to make up 
 by silence and seclusion for the arbitrary distinctions and 
 recognised barriers, which limited and defined the game 
 of life, but admitted so much pleasant freedom within 
 the rules. We can however, still acknowledge the value 
 of such records as those of the late Mr. Nassau, Senior, 
 whose "Conversations" with the most eminent politicians 
 and men of action of his time, especially in France, 
 afibrd trustworthy and interesting materials for the 
 future historian, and where a legal mind and well-trained 
 observation take the place of vivid representation and 
 literary skill. " Quand un bon mot," writes Monsieur 
 L. 'Enfant in one of his prefaces to his " Poggiana " " est 
 
 has some object in view to exercise his faculties and talents. I must 
 say, at the present time I think the race very superior to the English, 
 who are too far gone in luxury and dissipation to be agreeable or 
 happy. Morals here are certainly very good, and yet the manners are 
 much more free, and one scarcely ever meets with affectation and airs. 
 People meet like friends, and not with a cold bow and a distant 
 curtsey."
 
 XXll INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 en meme temps un trait d'Histoire. on fait ais^ment 
 grace a'ce qui [)eut lui manquer du cote de la force et 
 du sel." 
 
 The title of "Bo&welliana,' which the editor has taken 
 from the original manuscript, is hardly correct. This is, 
 in fact, one of the note -books of the anecdotes and 
 facetice of the society in which Boswell lived ; and 
 though such a use of the termination may find some 
 analogy in the Luculliana, — cherries that Lucullus 
 brought from Pontus — and the Appiana — apples intro- 
 duced into Rome by him of the Appian way, — yet the 
 term "Ana," in its most important applications, has 
 always referred not to the collector, but to the personage 
 or at any rate to the subject-matter of the book. Some 
 vindication for its use on the present occasion may, how- 
 ever, be found in those instances in wdiicli Boswell acts as 
 Bozzy to himself, and where the opinions and the mode of 
 enunciating them are so thoroughly Boswellian that they 
 gi\'e a characteristic flavour to the whole. What can be 
 more delightfully his own than the prefixes "Uxoriana," 
 and " My son Alexander T 
 
 There is some mystery in the insertion of certain 
 occasional Johnsoniana, which could hardly have found 
 their way into this collection, if Boswell had at the time 
 been keeping special memoranda of his great Oracle. 
 They are not very numerous nor consecutive, nor do 
 they imply that at the time they were taken down they 
 were intended as portions of the magnum opus. Most
 
 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XXIU 
 
 of them, however, are incorporated in it, and are only re- 
 peated here to preserve the integrity of the manuscript. 
 The few omissions, such as they are, are of the same 
 character as the lacuncB in the Temple letters. 
 
 The historical and biographical annotation of these 
 anecdotes has been a work requiring considerable local 
 knowledge and antiquarian research. Executed, as it 
 is, by Dr. Rogers, it affords an interesting social picture 
 of the Scotland of the day, and there are many families 
 still living, who will here gladly recognise and welcome 
 the words and thoughts of their ancestors.
 
 MEMOIR 
 
 OF 
 
 JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 As Dr. Johnson's biographer, and the chronicler of his conver- 
 sations, James Boswell is entitled to remembrance. On the 
 publication of his " Life of Johnson," — though seven years had 
 elapsed since the moralist's decease, and two memoirs 
 had in the interval appeared, — a deep interest was excited; 
 and the author, whose peculiarities had hitherto subjected him 
 to ridicule, at once attained a first place as a biographer. Time, 
 which effects many changes in literary popularity, has borne 
 in an even current the " Life of Johnson," and therewith in 
 every home of lettered Britons has rendered familiar the name 
 of Boswell. 
 
 Representing a landed branch of a Norman House, James 
 Boswell inherited no small share of family pride, a point 
 of character which under proper regulation might have 
 proved salutar}'-. Sieur de Bosville accompanied William 
 of Normandy into England, and held a considerable com- 
 mand at the battle of Hastings. His descendants migrated 
 into Scotland during the reign of David I., and there 
 acquired lands in the county of Berwick. Eobert Bosville 
 obtained the lands of Oxmuir, in Berwickshire, under 
 
 B
 
 2 MEMOIR OF JAMES B0S"\\T;LL. 
 
 William the Lion ; he witnessed many charters in the 
 reign of that monarch. He was father of Adam de Bosville de 
 Oxmuir, whose name appears in an obligation of Phdip de 
 Lochore in 1235, during the reign of Alexander II. In the lands 
 of Oxmuir he was succeeded by his son Roger, and his grandson 
 William de BosvUle, the latter of whom was compelled with 
 other barons to swear fealty to Edward I. in 1296. Richard, 
 son of William, obtained from King Robert the Bruce, lands 
 near Ardrossan, in Ayrshire, in addition to his estates in 
 Berwickshire. 
 
 Roger de Bos well, second son of Richard of Oxmuir, married 
 in the reign of David II., Mariota, daughter and co-heiress of 
 Sir William Lochore of that ilk, with whom he obtained half 
 the barony of Auchterderran, in Fife. In this barony he was 
 succeeded by his son John de Boswell, who espoused Margaret, 
 daughter of Sir Robert Melville, of Carnbee. Their son, Sir 
 William Boswell, was judge in a perambulation of the lands of 
 Kirkness and Lochore. He married Elizabeth, daughter and 
 heiress of Alexander Gordon, with wliom he got some lands in 
 the constabulary of Kinghorn. His son. Sir John Boswell, 
 designed of Balgregie, married, early in the fifteenth century, 
 Mariota, daughter of Sir John Glen, and with her obtained the 
 barony of Balmuto, in Fife. 
 
 Sir John Boswell, of Balmuto, was succeeded by his son 
 David, who married first Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John 
 Melville, of Raith, and secondly, Isabel, daughter of Sir Thomas 
 Wemyss, of Rires, relict of David Hay, of Naughton. Robert, 
 younger son by the first marriage, became parson of Auchter- 
 derran, and was much esteemed for his piety and learning : he 
 attained his hundredth year. David, the elder son, obtained, in 
 1458, from James II., by a charter under the great seal, the lands 
 of Glasmont, in Fife. He married first Grizel, daugliter of
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 6 
 
 Sir John Wemyss of that ilk ; and secondly, in 1430, Lady 
 Margaret Sinclair, daughter of William, Earl of Orkney and 
 Caithness. Thomas, eldest son of the second marriage, obtained 
 from James IV., as a signal mark of royal favour, the estate of 
 Auchinleck,* in Ayrshire. He was slain at Modden on the 9th 
 September, 1513. By his wife Annabella, daughter of Sir Hugh 
 Campbell, of Loudoun, he had an only son David, who, suc- 
 ceeding to the paternal estate, espoused Lady Janet Hamilton, 
 daughter of James, first Earl of Arran. David was succeeded 
 by his son John, whose first wife was Christian, daughter of Sir 
 Eobert Dalzell, of Glenae, progenitor of the Earls of Carnwath. 
 Of this marriage, James, the eldest son, succeeded to Auchinleck. 
 He died in 1618, leaving by his wife, Marion Crawford, of 
 Kerse, six sons, three of whom entered the service of Gustavus 
 Adolphus, and ultimately settled in Sweden. David Bos well, 
 the eldest, succeeded to Auchinleck ; he was an ardent supporter 
 of Charles L, and was fined ten thousand marks for refusing to 
 subscribe the Covenant, He married Isabel, daughter of Sir 
 
 * In reference to Thomas Boswell the following entries appear in 
 the Treasurer's books : — May 15th, 1504. " Item, to Thomas Boswell 
 lie laid downe in Leith to the wife of the kingis innis and to the 
 boye ran the kingis hors 18s." Aug, 2, 1504. " Item, for twa 
 hidis to be jakkis to Thomas Boswell and Watte Trumbull, agane the 
 Raid of Eskdale [an expedition against the Border thieves], 56s," 
 January 1, 1504-5. " Item, to Thomas Boswell and Pate Sinclair to 
 by thaim daunsing geir, 28s." December 31, 1505. " Item, to 30 
 dosane of bellis for dansarris, delyverit to Thomas Boswell, £4 10s." 
 In his " Collection of Criminal Trials," Mr. Pitcairn, who quotes these 
 entries, supposes that Thomas Boswell held the position of royal 
 minstrel. In this office he was probably the successor of Sir Wilham 
 Rogers, chief musician to James III, Rogers, like BosweU, obtained 
 from his sovereign a grant of lands in guerdon of service. He suffered 
 a violent death in 1482. (" Traquair Papers," quoted in Chambers' 
 " History of Peeblesshire," Edinb., 1864, 8vo., pp. 81—86.)
 
 4 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 John Wallace, of Cairnhill, but having no male issue, he' was 
 at his death in 1661 succeeded by his nephew David, son of 
 his next brother James by his wife, a daughter of Sir James 
 Cunninghame, of Glengarnock. 
 
 David Boswell of Auchinleck espoused Anne, daughter of 
 James Hamilton of Dalziel, by whom, besides three daughters, 
 he had two sons, James and Eobert. The latter settled in 
 Edinburgh as a Writer to the Signet, and acquiring a handsome 
 fortune, purchased from his kinsman, Andrew Boswell, the 
 estate of Balmuto, which had belonged to his ancestors. His 
 son, Claude James Boswell, born in 1742, passed advocate in 
 1766, and after serving eighteen years as sheriff of Fife, was in 
 1798 raised to the bench, under the judicial title of Lord 
 Balmuto.* His lordship died on the 22nd July, 1824 
 
 James Boswell, elder son of David Boswell of Auchinleck, 
 succeeded to the paternal estate : he practised as an advocate, 
 and attained considerable eminence in his profession. By his 
 wife. Lady Elizabeth Bruce, daughter of Alexander, second 
 Earl of Kincardine, he had two sods and a daughter, Veronica ; 
 she married David Montgomerie, of Lainshaw, and his daughter 
 Margaret espoused James Boswell, the subject of this memoir. 
 John, younger son of James Boswell of Auchinleck, studied 
 medicine, and became censor of the Eoyal College of Physicians, 
 Edinburgh. Alexander, the elder son, succeeded to Auchinleck 
 on his father's death in 1748. 
 
 Through his father, Alexander Boswell was attracted to 
 
 * Lord Balmuto was a large coarse-looking man, with black hair 
 and beetling eyebrows. Though not vulgar he was passionate, and 
 had a boisterous manner. My motlier and her sisters gave him the 
 nickname of the " black bull of Norr'away," in allusion to the northern 
 position of Bahnuto. — " Personal Recollections of Mary Somerville," 
 Lond., 8vo., 1873, p. 55.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 5 
 
 legal studies; he passed advocate 29tli December, 1729, and 
 after a period of successful practice at the bar, was in 1743 
 appointed sheriff of Wigtonshire. He was raised to the bench 
 in 1754, when he assumed the title of Lord Auchinleck;* 
 he was appointed a Lord of Justiciary in the following 
 year. 
 
 About the year 1739, Alexander Boswell married his 
 cousin -f- Euphemia Erskine, descended of the ennobled House 
 of Erskine of Mar. Her father. Colonel John Erskine, was a 
 younger son of the Hon. Sir Charles Erskine, first baronet 
 of Alva, and her mother was Euphemia, one of the four 
 daughters of William Cochrane of Ochiltree, a scion of the noble 
 House of Dundonald by his wife Lady Mary Bruce, eldest 
 daughter of Alexander, second Earl of Kincardine. Of the marriage 
 of Alexander Boswell and Euphemia Erskine were born three 
 sons : John, the second son, became a military ofl&cer and died 
 unmarried; David, the youngest, entered a house of business, 
 and at the close of his apprenticeship in 1768 joined partner- 
 ship with Charles Herries, a Scotsman, and Honorius Dalliol, a 
 Frenchman, in establishing a mercantile house at Valencia in 
 Spain. On account of the Spaniards being prejudiced against 
 the name of David, as of Jewish origin, he assumed the 
 Christian name of Thomas. On account of the war he left 
 Spain in 1780, when he settled in London, and commenced 
 business as a merchant and banker. He afterwards accepted a 
 
 * In a MS. commonplace-ljook of Lord Hailes, preserved at JS'ew 
 Hailes, near Edinburgh, occurs the following entry in his lordship's 
 handwriting: — "1754, Feb. 14. My friend Mr. Alex, Boswell, 
 of Auchinleck, admitted a Lord of Session. He has told me that it 
 was by the interest of the Duke of Newcastle. For once at least his 
 Grace judged right." The Duke of N'ewcastle was Prime Minister. 
 
 t This lady's eldest sister was wife of the celebrated Dr. Alexander 
 Webster, of Edinburgh (see podcu).
 
 6 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 post in the Navy Office, where he "became the head of the 
 Prize Department. He purchased the estate of Crawley Grange, 
 Buckmghamshire, and died in 1826. A man of grave deportment 
 and correct morals, he was esteemed for his discretion, urbanity, 
 and intelligence. By his marriage with Anne Catherine, sister 
 of General Sir Charles Green, Bart., he became father of one 
 child, Thomas David, who was born 24th September, 1800. 
 This gentleman succeeded his father in the estate of Crawley 
 Grange ; he married in 1841 Jane, daughter of John ]^)arker, Esq. 
 Having died without issue, his estate passed to another branch 
 of the BosweU family. 
 
 James Boswell, eldest son of Lord Auchinleck, was born at 
 Edinburgh on the 29th October, 1740. He received his rudi- 
 mentary training from a private tutor, Mr. John Dun, a native 
 of Eskdale, and who, on the presentation of his father, was, in 
 1752, ordained minister of Auchinleck. He was afterwards 
 sent to a school at Edinburgh, taught by Mr. James Mundell, a 
 teacher of eminence. Afterwards he was enrolled as a pupil in 
 the High School, under Mr. John Gilchrist, one of the masters, 
 a celebrated classical scholar.* 
 
 Possessed of strong religious and political convictions, Lord 
 Auchinleck sought to imbue his children with a love of Presby- 
 terianism and a loyal attachment to the House of Hanover. In 
 those aims he was. assisted by his wife, a woman of vigorous 
 sagacity and most exemplary piety. To her affectionate 
 counsel rather than to the wishes of his father, the eldest son 
 was disposed to yield some reverence. But he early affected to 
 despise the simple ritual of the Presbyterian Church, and in 
 direct antagonism to his father's commands he declared himself 
 a Jacobite and a warm adherent of the exiled House. He 
 
 * Dr. Stevens' "History of the High School of Edinburgh," 
 pp. 100, 135.
 
 xMEMOm OF JAMES BOSWELL. 7 
 
 related to Dr. Jolinsou, that when his father prayed for King 
 George, he proceeded to pray for King James, till one day his 
 uncle. General Cochrane, gave him a shilling on condition that 
 he would pray for the Hanoverian monarch. The bribe over- 
 came his scruples, and he did as he was asked. 
 
 With a view to his becoming an advocate at the Scottish 
 Bar, Boswell entered the University of Edinburgh. There he 
 formed the acquaintance of Mr. William Johnson Temple, from 
 Allardine in Northumberland, a young gentleman preparing 
 in the literary classes for orders in the English Church. Mr. 
 Temple was Boswell's senior, and much surpassed him in 
 general knowledge. He belonged to an old and respectable, if 
 not an affluent family, and he was of a pleasing and gentle- 
 manly deportment. The exiled king being forsaken, he became 
 Boswell's next hero. In parting from him at the close of 
 their first college session, Boswell begged that their friendship 
 might be maintained by correspondence; and letters actually 
 passed between them for thirty-seven years. To Boswell's share 
 of that correspondence we are indebted for many materials 
 illustrative of his life. 
 
 It will be convenient at this point to present a few particulars 
 of Mr. Temple's career, closely associated as that gentleman was 
 with the subject of our history. After leaving Edinburgh he 
 sustained the loss of a considerable fortune through the embar- 
 rassments of his father. Proceeding to the University of 
 Cambridge, he took the degree of LL.B., and soon afterwards 
 entered into orders. In 1767 he was preferred to the Eectory of 
 Mamhead, Devonshire, which, added to the Vicarage of St. 
 Gluvias, Cornwall, brought him, with the remains of his private 
 fortune, an income of £500 a year. In youth he afforded proof 
 of original power; he was a considerable politician, and an 
 excellent classical scholar. He composed neatly ; his cha-
 
 8 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 racter of the poet Gray, with whom he was acquainted, has 
 been quoted approvingly by Dr. Mason, his biographer, and 
 likewise by Dr. Johnson. He published an essay on the 
 studies of the clergy, another " On the Abuse of Unrestrained 
 Power," and "A Selection of Historical and Political Memoirs;" 
 but none of these compositions were much sought after. 
 He died on the 8th August, 1796, surviving our author 
 little more than a year. He was oppressed by an habitual 
 melancholy, which the untoward temper of his wife served 
 materially to intensify. He has been described as " Boswell's 
 faithful monitor;" he was scarcely so, for his remonstrances 
 were feeble. Had he reproved sternly he might have been of 
 some service. 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Temple dated 29th July, 1758, Boswell 
 informs him that he had been introduced to Mr. Hume, whom he 
 thus describes : — " He is a most discreet, affable man, as ever I 
 met with, and has really a great deal of learning, and a choice 
 collection of books. He is indeed an extraordinary man, — few 
 such people are to be met with now-a-days. We talk a great 
 deal of genius, fine language, improving our style, &c., but I am 
 afraid solid learning is much wore out. INIr. Hume, I think, 
 is a very proper person for a young man to cultivate an 
 acquaintance with. Though he has not perhaps the most 
 delicate taste, yet he has applied himself with great attention 
 to the study of the ancients, and is likewise a great historian, 
 so that you are not only entertained in his company, but may 
 reap a great deal of useful instruction." 
 
 When Mr. Temple proceeded to Cambridge he reported to his 
 Edinburgh friend that he was studying in earnest. In his 
 reply, dated IGth December, 1758, Boswell describes his own 
 studies : — " I can assure you," he writes, " the study of tlie law 
 here is a most laborious task. . . . From nine to ten I attend the
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 9 
 
 law class ; from ten to eleven study at home ; and from one to 
 two attend a college [class] upon Koman antiquities ; the after- 
 noon and evening I always spend in study. I never walk except 
 on Saturdays." Thanking his friend for the perusal of a MS. 
 poem he adds, " To encourage you I have enclosed a few trifles of 
 my own ... I have pubUshed now and then the production 
 of a leisure hour in the magazines. If any of these essays can 
 give entertainment to my friend, I shall be extremely happy." 
 
 On the importance of religion Boswell reciprocated his friend's 
 sentiments. After informing him that the continuance of his 
 friendship made him " almost weep with joy," he proceeds, 
 " May indulgent Heaven grant a continuance of our friendship ! 
 As our minds improve in knowledge may the sacred flame 
 still increase, until at last we reach the glorious world above 
 when we shall never be separated, but enjoy an everlasting 
 society of bliss. Such thoughts as these employ my happy 
 
 moments, and make me — 
 
 * Feel a secret joy 
 Spring o'er my heart, beyond the pride of kings.' " 
 
 After a reference to companionship he adds, " I hope by 
 Divine assistance, you shall still preserve your amiable cha- 
 racter amidst all the deceitful blandishments of vice and 
 folly." 
 
 In the same letter Boswell informed Mr. Temple that he had 
 fallen desperately in love. The object of his affection was a 
 
 Miss W 1, for so he disguises her name — a reticence in 
 
 matters of the heart which he does not evince subsequently. 
 After expatiating on the lady's charms and angelic qualities, 
 especially her "just regard for true piety and religion," he 
 remarks that " she is a fortune of thirty thousand pounds." 
 With so large a dowry, he feels that she might be difficult 
 to win, but he conceives that " a youth of his turn has a better
 
 10 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 chance to gain the affections of a lady of her character than of 
 any other." He adds complacently, " As I told you before, my 
 mind is in such an agreeable situation, that being refused 
 would not be so fatal as to drive me to despair." He sums up 
 by assuring his correspondent that he had entrusted the secret 
 of his passion only to another whose name was " Love." 
 
 Mr. Love was one of BosweU's early heroes. A native of 
 England, he was originally connected with Drury Lane Theatre, 
 but for some cause he left London and sojourned at Edin- 
 burgh, Tliere he at first practised private theatricals, but 
 afterwards became a teacher of elocution. He read with Miss 
 
 AV 1, and also with Boswell, though at different hours, and 
 
 advised the latter to look after the pretty heiress. Boswell 
 took the hint ; but the dream soon passed away, for the name of 
 the rich beauty does not reappear. 
 
 To his young friend ]\Ir. Love administered more useful 
 counsel by advising him to cultivate an easy style of com- 
 position. To accomplish, this he recommended him to keep a 
 journal or commonplace-book, and daily to record in it notes of 
 conversations, and of more remarkable occurrences. Boswell 
 acted on jNIr. Love's suggestion. Writing to Mr, Temple, 
 he reports that having gone with his father to the Northern 
 Circuit, he travelled in a chaise with Sir David Dalrymple 
 the whole way, and that he kept an exact journal at the 
 particular desire of his friend ]\Ir. Love, and sent it to him 
 in sheets, by every post. Such was BosweU's first effort in 
 journal-making ; it was next to be practised on Paoli, and 
 latterly, with unprecedented success, on Dr. Johnson. As to 
 Mr. Love, it may be remarked that he compensated himself for 
 his early counsel by sponging his pupil. " Love " is to breakfast 
 with me to-morrow," wrote Boswell to Mr, Temple in July 
 1763. " I hope I sliall get him to pay me up some more of
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 11 
 
 what he owes me. Pray, is pay up an English phrase, I know 
 pay down is ? " 
 
 Sir David Dalrymple, Bart., better known by his judicial title 
 of Lord Hailes, was now an Advocate Depute,* one of the faculty 
 specially retained by the Crown for arraigning offenders in the 
 Justiciary Court. An able lawyer, he had already afforded 
 evidence of his ability and . accurate scholarship in several 
 separate publications and in various contributions to the 
 periodicals. Possessing a fund of information which he com- 
 municated with much suavity of manner, Boswell hailed him 
 as his Maecenas. Having enrolled him among his divinities, 
 he was disposed to idolize likewise all those wiiom he 
 approved. Of these the most conspicuous was Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson, whose existence was first made known to him 
 in a post-chaise conversation. He was delighted to learn 
 that he still lived, was the centre of a literary circle, had com- 
 posed a literary medley styled the Ranibler, and had edited a 
 dictionary. As Sir David expatiated on his learning and his 
 virtues, Boswell resolved that one day Johnson should have a 
 place among his gods. 
 
 In November, 1759, Boswell entered the University of 
 Glasgow as a student of civil law; he also attended the 
 lectures of Dr. Adam Smith on moral philosophy and rhetoric. 
 His evenings were spent in places of public amusement. From 
 Mr. Love he had contracted a fancy for dramatic art, which in 
 the absence of a licensed theatre he could not gratify in the 
 capital. With more enlightened views the merchants of 
 
 * In Lord Hailes' Commonplace-book, preserved at !N"ew Hailes, 
 is the following entry: — "1755, April 1. — I began my office 
 of Advocate Depute at Stirling — a ridiculous day of the year. At 
 that time I was very ignorant of criminal law, but good intentions 
 have, I hope, atoned for my defects."
 
 12 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Glasgow tolerated theatrical representations, obtaining on their 
 
 boards such talent as their provincial situation could afford. 
 
 Among those wlio sought a livelihood at the Glasgow theatre was 
 
 Francis Gentleman, a native of Ireland, and originally an olSicer 
 
 in the army. This amiable gentleman sold his commission in 
 
 the hope of obtaining fame and opulence as a dramatic author ; 
 
 but disappointed in obtaining a patron, he attempted to subsist 
 
 as an actor. He was entertained by Boswell, who encouraged 
 
 him to publish an edition of Southern's tragedy of " Oroonoco," 
 
 himself accepting the poetical dedication. The dedicatory verses 
 
 closed thus : — 
 
 *' But, where, with honest pleasure, she can find 
 Sense, taste, religion, and good nature joined, 
 There gladly will she raise her feeble voice, 
 Nor fear to tell that Boswell is her choice." 
 
 Boswell's patronage did not avail the unfortunate player. He 
 was compelled to leave Glasgow; thereafter he removed from 
 place to place, " experiencing all the hardships of a wandering 
 actor, and all the disappointments of a friendless author." He 
 died in September, 1784. 
 
 At Glasgow, while spending his week-day evenings in places 
 of amusement, Boswell began to frequent on Sundays the ser- 
 vices of the Church of Kome. Before the end of tlie College 
 session he had resolved to embrace the Catholic faith, and to 
 qualify himself for orders in the Romish Church. These vagaries 
 were so distressing to his parents that he was recalled to Edin- 
 burgh. He consented to abandon his sacerdotal aspirations, 
 provided he was allowed to substitute for the law the profession 
 of arms. In March 1700 his father accompanied him to London 
 in order to procure him a commission in the Guards. They 
 waited on the Duke of Argyll, who, according to Boswell's narra- 
 tive, keenly discommended the military proposal. " My lord," said
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 18 
 
 tlie Duke, " I like your son ; this boy must not be shot at for 
 three shillings and sixpence a day." Lord Auchinleck soon 
 after returned to Edinburgh. 
 
 Boswell was allowed to remain in London. His religious 
 views were opposed to his interests in the North, and it was 
 evident that he would not be restrained from avowing his belief 
 in public. It was therefore advisable that he should meanwhile 
 reside in London. At the request of his father, Lord Hailes 
 introduced him to Dr. Jortin, in the hope that that eminent 
 divine would lead him to conform to the doctrines of the 
 English Church. The following letter from Dr. Jortin to Lord 
 Hailes, dated 27th April, 1760, would imply that Boswell had 
 already, amidst the gaieties of London, ceased to concern him- 
 self with ecclesiastical questions : — 
 
 " Your young gentleman * called at my house on Thursday 
 noon, April 3. I was gone out for the day, and he seemed to 
 be concerned at the disappointment, and proposed to come the 
 day following. My daughter told him that I should be engaged 
 at church, it being Good Friday. He then left your letter, and 
 a note with it for me, promising to be with me on Saturday 
 morninf^r. But from that time to this I have heard nothing 
 of him. He began, I suppose, to suspect some design upon 
 him, and his new friends and fathers may have represented 
 me to him as an heretic and an infidel, whom he ought to avoid 
 as he would the plague. I . should gladly have used my best 
 endeavours upon this melancholy occasion, but, to tell you the 
 truth, my hopes of success would have been small. Nothing is 
 more intractable than a fanatic. I heartily pity your good 
 friend. If his son be really sincere in his new superstition, and 
 sober in his morals, there is some comfort in that, for surely a 
 man may be a papist and an honest man. It is not to be ex- 
 pected that the son should feel much for his father's sorrows. 
 Eeligious bigotry eats up natural affection, and tears asunder 
 
 * Letter of Dr. Jortin, preserved at New Hailes.
 
 14 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 the dearest bonds. Yet, if I had an opportunity I should have 
 touched that string, and tried whether there remained in his 
 breast any of the veteris vestigia fiammcB." 
 
 To his early attachment to the Romish Church, Boswell after- 
 wards refers only once. In a letter addressed to Mr. Temple 
 in November, 1789, he remarks that his " Popish imagination 
 induces him to regard his correspondent's friendship as a kind 
 of c7-cdit on which he may in part repose." 
 
 With his father Boswell was not candid in his professed 
 military ardour. In seeking a commission in the Guards, he 
 informed Mr. Temple * his desire was " to be about court, 
 enjoying the happiness of the heau monde and the company of 
 men of genius." As to military zeal he afterwards announced 
 in a pamphlet, f that he was troubled with a natural timidity 
 of personal danger, which cost him some philosophy to over- 
 come. 
 
 He protracted his residence in London for a whole year. For 
 some time he resided with Alexander, tenth Earl of Eglinton, 
 a warm friend of the Auchinleck family. By his lordship he 
 was introduced " into the circle of the great, the gay, and the 
 ingenious." Having been presented to the Jockey Club, and 
 carried to Newmarket, he was deeply moved by the events of 
 the racecourse. Eetiring to the coffee-room he composed a 
 poem, making himself the theme, though in styling himself 
 "The Cub at Newmarket" he gratified his egotism by the 
 forfeiture of dignity. Presented by Lord Eglinton to the Duke 
 of York, he invited his Royal Highness to listen to his poem, 
 and ventured to offer him the dedication. The Duke accepted 
 what it would have been ungracious to refuse, and Boswell 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Temple, dated 1st May, 1761. 
 •j- "Letter to the People of Scotland," Lond , 8vo., ]785.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 15 
 
 printed his poem with an epistle dedicatory, in which he " let 
 the world know that this same Cub has been laughed at by 
 the Duke of York, had been read to his Eoyal Highness by the 
 genius himself, and warmed by the immediate beams of his 
 kind indulgence." Boswell thus describes himself: — 
 
 " Lord * * * * n, who has, you know, 
 A little dash of whim or so ; 
 Who through a thousand scenes will range, 
 To pick up anything that's strange, 
 By chance a curious cub had got, 
 On Scotia's mountains newly caught ; 
 And after driving him about 
 Through London, many a diff' rent route, 
 The comic episodes of which 
 "Would tire your lordship's patience much ; 
 Newmarket Meeting being near, 
 He thought 'twas best to have him there. 
 ***** 
 
 He was not of the iron race 
 
 Which sometimes Caledonia grace ; 
 
 Though he to combat could advance, 
 
 Plumpness shone in his countenance ; 
 
 And belly prominent declared 
 
 That he for beef and pudding cared ; 
 
 He had a large and pond'rous head. 
 
 That seemed to be composed of lead ; 
 
 From which hung down such stiff, lank hair, 
 
 As might the crows in autumn scare," 
 
 For some time Lord Eglinton was amused by the juvenile 
 ardour and vivacity of his guest. At length, overcome by his 
 odd ways, he checked in plain terms his visitor's vanity and 
 recklessness. The admonition was probably unheeded, for his 
 Lordship seems to have withdrawn his patronage. His own 
 career was cut short by a sad and memorable occurrence ; 
 he was shot on his own estate by a poacher, whose firelock 
 he had forcibly seized. He died on the 25th October, 1769.
 
 16 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 In London, Boswell got acquainted with the poet Derrick, 
 who became his companion and guide. Derrick was in his 
 thirty-sixth year. A native of Dublin, he had been apprenticed 
 to a linendraper, but speedily relinquished the concerns of trade. 
 In 1751 he proceeded to London and tried his fortune on the 
 stage. He next sought distinction as a poet. Introduced to 
 Dr. Johnson, he obtained a share of the lexicographer's regard ; 
 but, while entertaining affection for him as a man, the moralist 
 reproved his muse and condemned his levity. Writing to 
 Mr. Temple, Boswell refers to some of Derrick's verses as " in- 
 famously bad." When Nash died, Derrick succeeded him as 
 master of ceremonies at Bath. He died there about the year 
 1770. 
 
 In April, 1761, Boswell, in reluctant obedience to his father's 
 wishes, returned to Edinburgh, Writing to Mr. Temple on the 
 1st May, he implores his friend's commiseration. "Consider this 
 poor fellow [meaning himself] hauled away to the town of Edin- 
 burgh, obliged to conform to every Scotch custom, or be laughed 
 at — *WiU you hae some jeel? oh, fie! oh, fie!' — his flighty imagin- 
 ation quite cramped, and he obliged to study ' Corpus Juris 
 Civilis;' and live in his father's strict family; is there any wonder, 
 sir, that the unlucky dog should be somewhat fretful ? Yoke a 
 Newmarket courser to a dung-cart, and I'll lay my life on't he'll 
 either caper or kick most confoundedly, or be as stupid and 
 restive as an old battered post-horse." In the same letter 
 Boswell acknowledges that his behaviour in London had been 
 the reverse of creditable. On liis return to Edinburgh, he con- 
 tributed to a local periodical some notes on London life. This 
 narrative attracted the notice of John, thirteenth Lord Somer- 
 ville, a nobleman of singular urbanity and considerable literaiy 
 culture. His lordship invited the author to his table, com- 
 mended bis composition, and urged him to perseverance. Lord
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 17 
 
 Somerville died in 1765, Boswell cherished his memor}'- with 
 affection. 
 
 At Edinburgh, Boswell was admitted into the literary circles. 
 He dined familiarly with Lord Kames, was the disciple and 
 friend of Sir David Dalrymple, and passed long evenings with 
 Dr. Eobertson and David Hume. His passion for the drama 
 gained force. At this period there was no licensed theatre in 
 Edinburgh, and among religious families playgoing was pro- 
 scribed. Just five years had elapsed since the Eev. John 
 Home, minister of Athelstaneford, had, on account of taking 
 part in the private representation of his tragedy of " Douglas," 
 been constrained to resign his parochial charge. The popular 
 prejudice against theatricals was a sufficient cause for our 
 author falling into the opposite extreme ; he threw his whole 
 energies into a movement which led six years afterwards to a 
 theatre being licensed in the capital. 
 
 Boswell's chief associate in theatrical concerns was Mr. David 
 Boss, a tragedian who sometime practised on the London 
 boards, but who, like our author's friends, Messrs, Love and 
 Gentleman, had been driven northward by misfortune. A native 
 of London, Mr. Boss was of Scottish parentage. His father had 
 practised in Edinburgh as a Writer to the Signet ; he settled in 
 London m 1722 as a Solicitor of Appeals. Born in 1728, 
 David, his only son, was sent to Westminster School. There 
 he conmiitted some indiscretion, which led to his expulsion and 
 his father's implacable resentment. For some years he earned 
 subsistence as a commercial clerk, but obtaining from Quin 
 lessons in the dramatic art, he came on Covent Garden stage in 
 1753, where he acquired a second rank as a tragedian. Irregidar 
 habits interfered with his advancement, and he proceeded to 
 Edinburgh, in the hope of obtaining professional support. He 
 became Master of Bevels, and gave private entertainments 
 
 c
 
 18 MEMOIIl or JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 which were appreciated and patronized. At length, on the 9th 
 December, 1767, he was privileged to open the first licensed 
 theatre in the capital. Boswell, at his request, composed the 
 ' prologue ; ' the verses, now unhappily irrecoverable, were 
 described by Lord Mansfield as " witty and conciliating." The 
 theatre proved a success, and the player soon afterwards 
 acquired by marriage considerable emolument. He accepted as 
 his wife Fanny Murray, who had in a less honourable connexion 
 been associated with a deceased nobleman, receiving with her 
 an annuity of two hundred pounds. Eoss obtained a further 
 advance of fortune in a manner singularly unexpected. On 
 his death-bed his father made a will, excluding him from 
 any share of his property, and cruelly stipulating that his 
 sister " should pay him one shilling annually, on the first 
 day of May, his birthday, to remind him of his misfortune 
 in being born " ! On the plea that by the law of Scotland, a 
 person could not bequeath an estate by mere words of exclusion 
 without an express conveyance of inheritance, Ross obtained 
 a reduction of the settlement, and on a decision by the House of 
 Lords got possession of six thousand pounds. He now retired 
 from the Edinburgh theatre, and renewed his engagements at 
 Covent Garden ; but he soon became a victim to reckless 
 improvidence. To the close Boswell cherished his society, 
 though he did not venture to introduce him into literary circles. 
 He died in September, 1790. The following extract from 
 Boswell's letter to Mr. Temple, dated 16th September, 1790, 
 will close the narrative of his career : — 
 
 "My old friend Eoss, the player, died suddenly yesterday 
 morning. I was sent for, as liis most particular friend in town, 
 and have been so busy in arranging his funeral, at which I am 
 to be chief mourner, that I have left myself very little time — 
 only about ten minutes. Poor Eoss ! he was an unfortunate
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 19 
 
 man in some respects ; but he was a true ho7i vivant, a most social 
 man, and never was without good eating and drinlving, and 
 hearty companions. He had schoolfellows and friends who 
 stood by him wonderfully. I have discovered that Admiral 
 Barrington once sent him £100, and allowed him an annuity of 
 £60 a year." 
 
 Among those of his own age and standing who supported 
 Boswell in managing theatricals at Edinburgh was the Honour- 
 able Andrew Ersldne, youngest son of Alexander, fifth Earl 
 of Kellie. This young gentleman, then a lieutenant in the 
 71st regiment, was abundantly facetious, and composed respect- 
 able verses. Eeplying to a letter from Boswell, dated at 
 Auchinleck on the 25tli August, Erskine expressed himself in 
 verse, and letters were exchanged on both sides for a consider- 
 able period. Boswell meanwhile resolved to lay further claim 
 to the poet's bays. In November he issued a poem in 
 sixteen Spenserian stanzas, covering a like number of printed 
 pages, entitled " An Ode to Tragedy, by a Gentleman of Scot- 
 land." It was characteristically inscribed to himself — the epistle 
 dedicatory proceeding thus : — 
 
 " The following ode which courts your acceptance is on a 
 subject grave and solemn, and therefore may be considered by 
 many people as not so well suited to your volatile disposition. 
 But I, sir, who enjoy the pleasure of your intimate acquaint- 
 ance, know that many of your hours of retirement are devoted 
 to thought, and that you can as strongly relish the produc- 
 tions of a serious muse as the most brilliant sallies of sportive 
 fancy." 
 
 Writing to Erskine on the 17th December, Boswell further 
 enlarges on his own personal qualities. " The author of ' The 
 Ode to Tragedy,' " he proceeds, " is a most excellent man ; he is of 
 an ancient family in the west of Scotland, upon which he values
 
 20 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 himself not a little. At his nativity appeared omens of his future 
 greatness. His parts are bright, and his education has been good. 
 He has travelled in post-chaises miles without number. He eats of 
 every good dish, especially apple pie. He drinks old hock. He 
 has a very fine temper. He is somewhat of a humourist, and a 
 little tinctured with pride. He has a good manly countenance, 
 and owns himseK to be amorous. He has infinite vivacity, 
 yet is observed at times to have a melancholy cast. He is 
 rather fat than lean, rather short than tall, rather young 
 than old. His shoes are neatly made, and he never wears 
 spectacles." 
 
 In 1760, Mr. Erskine edited the first volume of a work in 
 duodecimo, entitled " A Collection of Original Poems, by the 
 Eev. ]\Ir. Blacklock and other Scotch gentlemen." This publica- 
 tion contained compositions by Mr. Blacklock, Dr. Beattie, Mr. 
 Gordon of Dumfries, and others ; it was published by Alexander 
 Donaldson,* an Edinburgh bookseller, and was intended as 
 the first of a series of three volumes. The second volume was 
 considerably delayed, owing to JNIr. Erskine's absence with his 
 regiment, and on Boswell were latterly imposed the editorial 
 labours. As contributors Erskine and Boswell were associated 
 with ]\Ir. Home, author of Douglas, jNIr. Macpherson, editor of 
 Ossian, and others. Of twenty-eight pieces from Boswell's pen 
 one is subjoined, eminently characteristic of its author. 
 
 * Tliis person is entitled to more than a passing notice. Long 
 before tlie modern publication of cheap literature by W. and li. 
 Chambers and Charles Knight, Alexander Donaldson opened a shop 
 in London for the sale of what were termed " spurious editions " of 
 popular books. The London booksellers endeavoured to check his 
 enterprise, but were defeated in the courts of law. Latterly lie was 
 unfortunate. His nephew, James Donaldson, also a printer at Edin- 
 burgh, founded and endowed the hospital in that city which hears 
 Ills name. For that purpose he bequeathed the sum of £200,000.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 21 
 
 " B , of Soapers* the king, 
 
 On Tuesdays at Tom's doesf appear, 
 And when he does talk, or does sing, 
 
 To him ne'er a one can come near 
 For he talks with such ease and such grace, 
 
 That all charm'd to attention we sit, 
 And he sings with so comic a face, 
 
 That our sides are just ready to split. 
 " B is modest enough, 
 
 Himself not quite Phoebus he thinks, 
 He never does flourish with snuff", 
 
 And hock is the liquor he druaks. 
 And he owns that JN'ed C t,l the priest, 
 
 ]\Iay to something of honour pretend, 
 And he swears that he is not in jest, 
 
 When he calls this same C 1 his friend. 
 
 " B is pleasant and gay, 
 
 For frolic by nature design'd ; 
 He heedlessly rattles away 
 
 When the company is to his mind. 
 ' This maxim,' he says, ' you may see, 
 
 We can never have corn without chaff"; ' 
 So not a bent sixpence cares he, 
 
 Whether tvith him or at him you laugh. 
 
 " B does women adore. 
 
 And never once means to deceive, 
 He's in love Avitli at least half a score ; 
 
 If they're serious he smiles in his sleeve. 
 He has all the bright fancy of youth, 
 
 With the judgment of forty and five. 
 In short, to declare the plain truth, 
 
 There is no better fellow alive." 
 
 * Boswell has appended this note. " Who has not heard of * Fveri/ 
 man soap Ms oicri beard' — the reigning phrase for ' Every man in his 
 
 humour ' ? Upon this foundation B instituted a jovial society, 
 
 called the Soaping Club." 
 
 t An Edinburgh tavern. 
 
 X The name of this Soaper has not been discovered.
 
 22 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Writing to Erskine on the 8th December, 1701, Boswell re- 
 marks that the second volume of the " Collection " was about to 
 appear, adding that his friend would " make a very good figure, 
 and himself a decent one." But the public, while not dis- 
 approving the strain of the known authors, condemned the levity 
 of the anonymous contributors, and thrust aside the book. The 
 publishing enterprise was ruined, and tlie projected third volume 
 did not appear. 
 
 Boswell determined to leave Edinburgh, assuring his father 
 tliat a military life was alone suited to his tastes. In a letter to ■ 
 Erskine, dated the 4th of May, he proceeds : — 
 
 " jMy fondness for the Guards must appear very strange to 
 you, who have a rooted antipathy at the glare of scarlet. But 
 I must inform you that there is a city called London, for which 
 I have as violent an affection as the most romantic lover ever 
 had for his mistress. There a man may indeed soap his own 
 beard, and enjoy whatever is to be had in this transitory 
 state of things. Every agreeable whim may be fully indulged 
 without censure. I hope, however, you will not impute my 
 living in England to the same cause for wliich Handet was 
 advised to go there, because the people were all as mad as 
 himself." * 
 
 Paternal remonstrances having proved unavailing, Boswell 
 was permitted to return to the metropolis. Erom Parliament 
 Place, Edinburgh, writing to Erskine on the 10th November, 
 lie informs him that "on Monday next he is to set out for 
 London." On the 20th November he writes from London, " If 
 I can get into the Guards, it will please me nmch ; if not, I 
 can't lielp it." 
 
 Boswell brought from Scotland a recommendation to Charles, 
 
 * Tliroufjiiuut Ids wliolc career Doswell oiterLaiiied tlic idea that 
 lii« mind was iin])crfectly balanced.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 23 
 
 Duke of Queensberry, the patron of Gay, but that nobleinan 
 took no part in his concerns. He again sought the field of 
 authorship. He and Erskine had corresponded on a variety of 
 topics, and he fancied tliat their letters might attract atten- 
 tion. The letters were printed in an octavo volume,* Boswell 
 remarking in the preface, that he and his correspondent " have 
 made themselves laugh, and hope they will have the same effect 
 upon other people." Erskine and Boswell were afterwards asso- 
 ciated in writing " Critical Strictures " on Mallet's tragedy of 
 "Elvira," acted at Drury Lane in the winter of 1762-3. In 
 1764, Erskine published a drama entitled " She's not Him, and 
 He's not Her ; a Earce in Two Acts, as it is performed in the 
 Theatre in the Canongate." In 1773 he issued " Town Eclogues," 
 a poem of twenty-two quarto pages, intended " to expose the false 
 taste for florid description which prevails in modern poetry." 
 
 From the 71st Erskine in 1763 exchanged into the 24th 
 Eegiment, in which he became Captain. Eetiring from the 
 army, he settled at Edinburgh. There he resided after 1790 
 with his sister. Lady Colville, at Drumsheugh, near the Dean 
 Bridge. He was an extraordinary pedestrian, and walked nearly 
 every morning to Queensferry, about ten miles distant, where 
 he breakfasted at Hall's Inn. He dispensed with attendance, 
 and when he had finished his repast, left payment under a 
 plate. He was of a tall, portly form, and to the last wore 
 gaiters and a flapped vest. Though satirical with his pen, he 
 was genial and humorous in conversation. He was an early 
 admu'er and occasional correspondent of the poet Burns. Like 
 his brother, "the musical Earl of Kellie," he was a lover of 
 Scottish melodies, and was one of a party of amateurs who 
 
 * Letters between the Honourable Andrew Erskine and Jaines 
 Boswell, Esq. London, 17G3, 8vo.
 
 24 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 associated with ]\Ii-. George Thomson in designing his " Collec- 
 tion of Scottish Airs." He actively assisted J\Ir. Thomson in 
 the earlier stages of his undertaking. Several songs from his 
 pen, Burns, in a letter to Mr. Thomson, written in June, 1793, 
 described as "pretty," adding, his "Love song is divine." Tlie 
 composition so described beginning "How sweet this lone 
 vale," became widely popular ; but the opening stanza only was 
 composed by him. He was one of the early friends of Archibald 
 Constable, the eminent publisher, who, in an autobiographical 
 fragment has described him as having " an excellent taste in the 
 fine arts," and being " the most unassuming man he had ever 
 met."* His habits were regular, but he indulged occasionally 
 at cards, and was partial to the game of whist. Having sustained 
 a serious loss at his favourite pastime he became frantic, and 
 threw himself into the Forth, and perished. This sad event 
 took place in September, 1793. In a letter to Mr. Thomson, 
 dated October, 1791, Burns writes that the tidings of Erskine's 
 death had distressed and " scared " him. 
 
 From the day Sir David Dalrymple first named Dr. Samuel 
 Johnson in the post-chaise, BosweU entertained a hope of 
 forming the lexicographer's acquaintance. On his former visit 
 to London he had exerted some effort to procure an introduction. 
 Derrick promised it, but lacked opportunity. During the 
 summer of 1761, Thomas Sheridan lectured at Edinburgh on the 
 practice of elocution, and charmed Bos well by descanting on 
 Dr. Johnson's virtues. Through Sheridan an introduction 
 seemed easy, but Boswell on visiting him found that he and 
 the lexicographer liad differed. Boswell did not despair. He 
 obtained leave to occupy his friend Mr. Temple's chambers 
 
 * "Archibald Constable and his Correspondents." Edinburgli, 1873, 
 8vo , vul. I., p. 32.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 25 
 
 in tlie Inner Temple, near Dr. Johnson's residence, and adjoining 
 liis well-known haunts. 
 
 A further effort was necessary. Boswell ingratiated himself 
 with Mr. Thomas Davies, bookseller, of No. 8, Eussell Street, 
 Covent Garden, formerly a player. Mr. Davies knew Dr. 
 Johnson well, saw him frequently in his shop, and was privileged 
 to entertain him at his table. To meet Boswell, the lexicographer 
 was invited more than once, but as our author puts it, " he was 
 by some unlucky accident or other prevented from coming to 
 us." In an unexpected manner Boswell at length attained his 
 wishes. The occurrence must be described in his own words : — 
 "At last, on Monday, the 16th of May, when I was sitting in 
 ]Mr. Davies' back parlour, after having drunk tea with him and 
 Mrs. Davies,* Johnson unexpectedly came into the shop ; and 
 Mr. Davies having perceived him through the glass door in the 
 room in which Ave were sitting advancing towards us, he 
 announced his awful approach to me something in the manner 
 of an actor in the part of Horatio, when he addresses Hamlet 
 on the appearance of his father's ghost, — 'Look, my lord, it 
 comes ! ' * * * Mr. Davies mentioned my name, and respect- 
 fully introduced me to him. I was much agitated ; and re- 
 collecting his prejudice against the Scotch, of which I had 
 heard much, I said to Davies, ' Don't tell where I come from.' 
 ' From Scotland,' cried Davies, roguishly. ' Mr. Johnson,' said 
 I, 'I do indeed come from Scotland, but I cannot help it.' I 
 am willing to flatter myself that I meant this as light pleasantry 
 to soothe and conciliate him, and not as a humiliating abase- 
 ment at the expense of my country. But however that might 
 be, this speech was somewhat unlucky ; for with that quickness 
 of wit for which he was so remarkable he seized the expression 
 
 * Mrs. Davies was originally an actress, and was celebrated as a 
 beauty.
 
 26 MEMOIll OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 " come from Scotland," which I used in the sense of being of 
 that country ; and as if I had said I had come away from it or 
 left it, retorted, ' That, sir, I find, is what a very great many of 
 your countrymen cannot help.' This stroke stunned me a good 
 deal; and when we had sat down I felt myself not a little 
 embarrassed, and apprehensive of what might come next. 
 He then addressed himself to Davies : ' What do you think of 
 Garrick ? He has refused me an order for the play for ISIiss 
 Williams, because he knows the house will be full, and that an 
 order would be worth three shillings.' Eager to take any 
 opening to get into conversation with him, I ventured to say, 
 ' Oh, sir, I cannot think j\Ir. Garrick would grudge such a tritle 
 to you.' 'Sir,' said he, with a stern look, 'I have known 
 David Garrick longer than you have done, and I know no right 
 you have to talk to me on this subject.' Perhaps I deserved 
 this check ; for it was rather presumptuous in me, an entire 
 stranger, to express any doubt of the justice of his animadver- 
 sion upon his old acquaintance and pupil. I now felt myself 
 much mortified, and began to think that the hope which I had 
 long indulged of obtaining his acquaintance was blasted. And 
 in truth, had not my ardour been uncommonly strong, and my 
 resolution uncommonly persevering, so rough a reception might 
 have deterred me for ever from making any further attempts. 
 Fortunately, however, I remained upon the field not wholly 
 discomfited, and was soon rewarded by hearing some of his 
 conversation." Boswell closes his narrative thus : — " I had 
 for a part of the evening been left alone with him, and 
 had ventured to make an observation now and then, which he 
 received very civilly, so that I was satisfied tJiat though there 
 was a roughness in his manner, there was no ill-nature in his 
 disposition. Davies followed me to the door, and when I 
 complained to him a little of the hard blows which the great
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL, 27 
 
 man had given me, he kindly took upon him to console me 
 by saying, ' Don't be uneasy. I can see he likes you very well.' " 
 Dr. Johnson regarded Boswell as an adventurer, who had come 
 to London in quest of literary employment. Davies perceiving 
 this, privately explained to him that Boswell was the son of a 
 Scottish judge and heir to a good estate. " A few days afterwards," 
 writes Boswell, " I called on Davies, and asked him if he thought 
 I might take the liberty of waiting on Mr. Johnson at his 
 chambers in the Temple. He said I certainly might, and that 
 Mr. Jolinson would take it as a compliment. So upon Tuesday, 
 the 24th of May, after having been enlivened by the witty sallies 
 of Messieurs Thornton, Wilkes, Churchill, and Lloyd, with whom 
 I had passed the morning, I boldly repaired to Johnson. His 
 chambers were on the first floor of No. 1, Inner Temple Lane, 
 and I entered them with an impression given me by the Eev. 
 Dr. Blair, of Edinburgh, who had been introduced to me not 
 long before and described his having ' found the giant in his 
 den,' an expression which, when I came to be pretty well 
 acquainted with Johnson, I repeated to him, and he was diverted 
 at this picturesque account of himself. * * * He received 
 me very courteously ; but it must be confessed that his apart- 
 ment and furniture and morning dress were sufficiently 
 uncouth. His brown suit of clothes looked very rusty; he had 
 on a little old shrivelled unpowdered wig, which was too small 
 for his head ; his shirt-neck and knees of his breeches were 
 loose ; his black worsted stockings ill drawn up, and he had a 
 pair of unbuckled shoes by way of slippers. But all these 
 slovenly particularities were forgotten the moment that he 
 began to talk. Some gentlemen, whom I do not recollect, were 
 sitting with him; and when they went away I also rose, but 
 he said to me, ' Nay, don't go.' ' Sir,' said I, ' I am afraid that 
 I intrude upon you. It is benevolent to allow me to sit and
 
 28 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 hear you.' He seemed pleased with this compliment, which I 
 sincerely paid him, and answered, ' Sir, I am obliged to any 
 man who visits me.' * * * Before we parted he was so 
 good as to promise to favour me with his company one evening 
 at my lodgings ; and as I took my leave, shook me cordially by 
 the hand. It is almost needless to add that I felt no little 
 elation at having now so happily established an acquaintance of 
 which I had been so long ambitious." 
 
 The evident sincerity of Boswell's respect pleased and flattered 
 Dr. Johnson. He listened to details of literary life in Edinburgh, 
 and Avas gratified to learn that certain Scotsmen appreciated his 
 learning. He visited Boswell in his chambers, and invited him 
 to the ]\Iitre Tavern, where afterwards they frequently supped, 
 and drank port till long after midnight. At one of these festive 
 meetings Boswell related the story of the post-chaise, and expa- 
 tiated on the merits of Sir David Dahymple with the ardour of 
 a hero worshipper. Dr. Johnson toasted Sir David in a bumper 
 as " a man of worth, a scholar, and a wit." He added, " I have, 
 however, never heard of him except from you ; but let him 
 know my opinion of him, for as he does not show himself much 
 in the world, he should know the praise of the few who hear 
 of him." On the 2nd of July, Boswell communicated with 
 Sir David Dalrymple in these terms : * — 
 
 " I am now upon a very good footing with ]\Ir. Johnson. His 
 conversation is instructive and entertaining. He has a most 
 extensive fund of knowledge, a very clear expression, and much 
 strong humour. I am often with him. Some nights ago w^e 
 supped by ourselves at the Mitre Tavern, and sat over a sober 
 bottle till between one and two in the morning. AVe talked a 
 good deal of you. We drank your health, and he desired me to 
 tell you so. Wlien I am in his company I am rationally happy, 
 
 * IJooWcll's letter at JN^cw Hailes.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 29 
 
 I am attentive and eager to learn, and I would hope that I may 
 receive advantage from such society." 
 
 To Boswell's letter, in its allusion to Dr. Johnson, Sir David 
 Dalrymple made the following answer : — * 
 
 " It gives me pleasure to think that you have obtained the 
 friendship of Mr, Samuel Johnson. He is one of the best moral 
 writers which England has produced. At the same time I envy 
 you the free and undisguised converse with such a man. May 
 I beg you to present my best respects to him, and to assure him 
 of the veneration which I entertain for the author of the 
 ' Eambler ' and of ' Easselas.' " 
 
 On the 15th July Bos well thus communicated with Mr. 
 Temple : — 
 
 " I had the honour of supping tete-a-tete with Mr. Johnson 
 last night ; by-the-bye, I need not have used a French phrase. 
 We sat till between two and three. He took me by the hand 
 cordially, and said, ' My dear Boswell, I love you very much.' 
 Now, Temple, can I help indulging vanity ? " 
 
 After quoting a portion of Sir David Dalrymple's letter, he 
 proceeds : — 
 
 " Mr. Johnson was in vast good humour, and we had much 
 conversation. I mentioned Fresnoy to him, but he advised me 
 not to follow a plan, and he declared that he himself never 
 followed one above two days. He advised me to read just as 
 inclination prompted me, which alone, he said, would do me any 
 good ; for I had better go into company than read a set task. 
 Let us study ever so much, we must still be ignorant of a good 
 deal. Therefore the question is, what parts of science do we 
 want to know ? He said, too, that idleness was a distemper 
 which I ought to combat against, and that I should prescribe to 
 myself five hours a day, and in these hours gratify whatever 
 literary desires may spring up. He is to give me his advice as 
 
 * Boswell's *' Life of Johnson,"
 
 30 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 to what books I should take with me from Eiiglaiid. I told him 
 that the Rambler shall accompany me round Europe, and so be 
 a Eambler indeed. He gave me a smile of complacency." 
 
 The tetc-d-tete with Dr. Johnson on the 14th of July, so 
 described to Mr. Temple, also forms the subject of a letter to 
 Sir David Dalrymple. That letter proceeds thus : — * 
 
 " On Wednesday evening, Mr. Johnson and I had another 
 tete-a-tSte at the ' Mitre.' Would you believe that we sat from 
 half an hou.r after eight till between two and three ! He took 
 me cordially by the hand and said, * My dear Boswell ! I love 
 you very much.' Can I help being somewhat vain ? * * * 
 He advises me to combat idleness as a distemper, to read five 
 hours every day, but to let inclination direct me what to read. 
 He is a great enemy to a stated plan of study. He advises me 
 when abroad to go to places where there is most to be seen and 
 learnt. He is not very fond of the notion of spending a whole 
 winter in a Dutch town. He thinks I may do much more by 
 private study than by attending lectures. He would have me 
 to perambulate (a word in his own style) Spain. He says a 
 man might see a good deal by visiting their inland towns and 
 universities. He also advises me to visit the northern kingdoms, 
 where more that is new is to be seen than in France and Italy, 
 but he is not against my seeing these warmer regions." 
 
 These allusions to foreign travel refer to a proposal by Lord 
 Auchinleck that his son should study civil law at Utrecht, and 
 in which Boswell was disposed to acquiesce, believing that in 
 thus gratifying his father's wishes he might be permitted before 
 returning home to visit the principal countries of the Continent. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 21st July, Johnson supped at Boswell's 
 chambers, when were also present Mr. George Dempster, M.P., 
 and the host's paternal uncle, Dr. John Boswell, from Edinburgh. 
 The occasion was one of the most memorable in the course of 
 
 * Oriccinal letter at New Hailes.
 
 MEMOIK OF JAMES BOS WELL. 31 
 
 Boswell's intercourse with his illustrious associate. Dr. Boswell 
 entertained loose notions of religion, and Mr. Dempster was 
 a disciple of David Hume. Dempster made a violent attack 
 on Christianity, repeating the arguments of Eousseau, and 
 quoting approvingly the sentiments of Hume and Gibbon. Dr. 
 Boswell preserved a general silence, but was disposed to smile 
 approvingly at Dempster's sallies. In the society of his new 
 acquaintance, Dr. Johnson was appalled to find a bold 
 upholder of infidel sentiments, and his indignation was pro- 
 portionate. He assailed Dempster with much severity, exposing 
 the sophistry of his school. Boswell took notes of the conversa- 
 tion, doubtless intending to utilize what he had written. Next 
 morning he hastened to Dr. Johnson's chambers to express dis- 
 approval of Dempster's sentiments. Dr. Johnson answered, 
 " I have not met with any man for a long time who has given 
 me such general displeasure. He is totally unfixed in his 
 principles, and wants to puzzle other people." This utterance 
 is presented by Boswell in Dr. Johnson's memoirs with the 
 prefatory remark, " Of a gentleman who was mentioned he said," 
 &c. Boswell became very intimate with Mr. Dempster, and so 
 erased from his journal all memorials of the evening's conversa- 
 tion. Not very creditably he affirms, in Johnson's Life, that 
 the evening was wholly occupied " in the discussion of social 
 and political questions." But the truth, which Boswell sought 
 to suppress, reaches us in his own words from two different 
 channels. To Mr. Temple, on the 23rd of July, he wrote 
 thus : — 
 
 "On Wednesday evening, Mr. Johnson, Dempster, and my 
 uncle Dr. Boswell, supped with me at my chambers, I had 
 prodigious satisfaction to find Dempster's sophistry (which he 
 has learned from Hume and Eousseau) vanquished by the solid 
 sense and vigorous reasoning of Johnson. It was a very fertile
 
 32 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. ^ 
 
 evening, and my journal is stored vnth its fruits. Dempster 
 was as happy as a vanquished argumentator coukl be ; and 
 the honest Doctor was cheerful and conversible and highly- 
 entertained." 
 
 On the same day Boswell communicated with Sir David 
 Dalrymple in these words : — 
 
 "Mr. Johnson did me the honour to sup with me at my 
 chambers some nights ago. Entrc nous, he said that Dempster, 
 wlio was also with me, gave him more general displeasure than 
 any man he has met with of a long time. lie saw a pupil of 
 Hume and of Eousseau totally unsettled as to principles, and 
 endeavouring to puzzle and shake other people with childish 
 sophistry. I had infinite satisfaction in hearing solid truth 
 confuting vain subtilty, * * * I thank God that I have 
 got acquainted with Mr. Johnson. He has done me infinite 
 service. He has assisted me to obtain peace of mind ; he has 
 assisted me to become a rational Christian ; I hope I shall ever 
 remain so." * 
 
 In referring to his having become a rational Christian, Boswell 
 desired to satisfy his Scottish Maecenas that he had personally 
 abandoned the superstitions of Romish worship. Mr. Dempster's 
 religious views, together with his personal history and his 
 acquaintance with Boswell, may be finally disposed of. Grand- 
 son of George Dempster, merchant and banker at Dundee, he 
 succeeded to several important estates, which his ancestor had 
 acquired by granting extensive loans on mortgages to the 
 former proprietors. Born in 1735, he studied at the University 
 of Edinburgh, and in that city formed the intimacy of Dr. 
 William Robertson, Alexander Carlyle, John Home, and other 
 eminent clergymen. Under their auspices he sat as a lay member 
 in the General Assembly ; and in that court he opposed his 
 friends by seconding the injunction of tlie House passed in 1757, 
 
 * Original letter proporved at New Hailes.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 33 
 
 forbidding the clergy to countenance theatricals* Becoming 
 acquainted with David Hume, he renounced Presbyterian ism, 
 and embraced infidelity. He abandoned the Scottish Bar to 
 which he had been called, and became candidate for the parlia- 
 mentary representation of the Fife and Forfar burghs. By a 
 narrow majority he secured his seat, but he was convicted of 
 bribery and the election was annulled. To accomplish his end 
 he had sold two fine estates, and expended nearly £15,000. On 
 presenting himself to the constituents the second time he was 
 returned under less exceptionable circumstances. He retained 
 his seat from 1762 till 1790. He would join no political party, 
 probably owing to an uncertainty of judgment, which was partly 
 an inheritance ; two of his ancestors being deposed and after- 
 wards restored to the ministry for certain changes in their civil 
 and ecclesiastical opinions. According to Boswell he early 
 cherished republican sentiments ; latterly he resisted the re- 
 volutionary ferment created by the French Directory. By the 
 general public he was esteemed a patriot, and was provincially 
 known as " Honest George." The poet Burns held that he 
 should have been ennobled. He supported some liberal 
 measures, and certain important services are associated with his 
 name. He denounced the conflict with the American colonies, 
 opposed the sovereignty exercised by the East India Company, 
 sought to remove all restraints from the national commerce, and 
 advocated the abolition of sinecures. On retiring from Parlia- 
 ment, he devoted himself to the promotion of agriculture and 
 manufactures in North Britain. He established an agricultural 
 society on his estate.f He improved the condition of the 
 
 * " Autobiography of the Eev. Dr. Alexander Carlyle." Edinburgh, 
 1860, 8vo., p. 322. 
 
 ■\ Of this society, styled the Lunan and Viney "Water Farming 
 Chib, the Rev. James Roger, of Dunino, father of the writer, was on 
 
 L)
 
 34 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Scottish fisheries, and discovered a method of preserving 
 salmon for the London market. He was much respected on his 
 estate, was benevolent to the poor, and exercised a generous 
 hospitality. He did not attend church on the plea of feeble 
 health, but he associated with the clergy of his neighbourhood, 
 and to his household spoke reverently of religion. In some 
 twenty of his letters, written at intervals during a period of 
 twenty-five years preceding his decease, the writer has on a 
 close examination been unable to detect any remark savouring 
 of scepticism. Yet it is nearly certain that he cherished to the 
 close of a long life the blighting infidelity of David Hume. 
 To the Eight Hon, John Wilson Croker was communicated by 
 Sir Walter Scott the following metrical epitaph, which it was 
 alleged Mr. Dempster composed upon himself: — 
 
 " Pray for the soul of deceased George Dempster, 
 In his youth a great fool, in his old age a gamester ; 
 Wliat you're to know, on this tomb you shall see, 
 Life's thread he let go when just ninety-three. 
 So sound was his bottom, his acquaintance all wonder'd 
 How old Nick had got him till he lived out the hundred. 
 To his money concerns he paid little attention, 
 First selling his land, then pawning his pension ; * 
 But his precious time he much better did manage, 
 To the end of his life from his earliest nonage. 
 He divided his hours into two equal parts, 
 And spent one half in sleeping, the other at carfes.jf 
 
 Mr. Dempster died on his estate of Dunnichen, Forfarshire, 
 on the 13th February, 1818, at the age of eighty-four. 
 
 Mr. Dempster's nomination elected perpetual secretary. The minute- 
 book is in the writer's possession. 
 
 * In 17C5 Mr. Dempster obtained the patent office of Secretary to 
 the Order of the Thistle, with a salary of £500 per annum, 
 
 t Cards.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL, 35 
 
 In May, 1763, two months before the period reached in the 
 preceding narrative, Boswell asked Sir David Dalrymple to 
 interpose with his father, who was threatening to disinherit him 
 on account of his unsettled habits. He concludes a letter to 
 Sir David in these words, — "Tell him to have patience 
 with me for a year or two, and I may be what he pleases." In 
 June he informs Sir David that his father's proposal that he 
 should proceed to Utrecht, there to study civil law under the 
 celebrated M. Trotz had met with his acceptance, and that his 
 father was " much pleased to find in him so prudent a 
 disposition." * 
 
 He adds, — 
 
 "My great object is to attain a proper conduct in life. How 
 sad will it be if I turn no better than I am ! I have much 
 vivacity, which leads me to dissipation and folly. This I think 
 I can restrain. But I will be moderate, and not aim at a stiff 
 sageness and buckram correctness. I must, however, own to 
 you that I have at bottom a melancholy cast, which dissipation 
 relieves by making me thoughtless, and therefore an easier 
 though a more contemptible animal. I dread a return of this 
 malady. I am always apprehensive of it." 
 
 About the Utrecht scheme he writes to Mr. Temple on the 
 15th July, "I have had a long letter from my father, full of 
 affection and good counsel. Honest man, he is now very 
 happy : it is amazing to think how much he has had at heart 
 my pursuing the road of civil life ; he is anxious for fear I 
 should fall off from my prudent system, and return to my 
 dissipated, unsettled way of thinking ; and in order to make 
 him easy, he insists on having my solemn promise that I will 
 persist in the scheme on which he is so earnestly bent : he 
 knows my fidelity, and he concludes that my promise will fix 
 
 * Letter of Boswell preserved at New Hailes.
 
 36 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 me. Indeed he is mucli in the right ; the only question is, how 
 much I am to promise. I think I may promise this much, — 
 that I shall from this time study propriety of conduct, and to 
 be a man of knowledge and prudence, as far as I can ; that I 
 shall make as much improvement as possible while 1 am abroad, 
 and when I return shall put on the gown as a member of the 
 Faculty of Advocates, and be upon the footing of a gentleman 
 of business, with a view to my getting into Parliament." 
 
 For the use of Mr. Temple's chambers Boswell paid his 
 proportion of rent, but his occupancy was burdened with the 
 condition that his friend's brother, a youth of seventeen, might 
 as occasion suited share the accommodation. This young 
 gentleman, Mr. Eobert Temple, held a commission in the line, 
 but was not very ardent in bis military duties. Boswell's early 
 intercourse with him was abundantly characteristic. To his 
 brother he reported of him on the 15th July, that "his genius 
 and application consisted in washing his face and brushing 
 his hat, which he will execute in a few hours ; " adding, " I find 
 it somewhat inconvenient to have anybody in chambers with 
 me. . . I have allowed him to be too free with me ; and I own 
 it hurts me when I find my folly bringing me into the situation 
 of being upon an equality with if not below the young man." 
 On the 23rd of July he in these doggerel verses celebrated the 
 youth on his returning from a visit to Salisbury : — 
 
 " Bob Temple has at Sarum been, 
 And all the pretty girls has seen ; 
 But he came back in the machine 
 Because he was the barber ! 
 
 " From Mother Bowles he got good wine ; 
 He licked his lips and called it fine ; 
 But now the dog at Cliff's must dine, 
 And is not that the harher ? "
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 37 
 
 In a few days afterwards, Master Robert having begun to 
 borrow one guinea after another, is described as " selfish," of 
 a " heedless disposition," and having " no great powers either 
 of understanding or imagination." Boswell sums up; "I am 
 glad he goes down to Cambridge." 
 
 In his letter to Sir David Dalrymple of the 23rd July, Bos- 
 well enters into some details respecting the Utrecht scheme, 
 and expresses a determination thoroughly to acquaint himself 
 with the law of nations. He has resolved to transcribe the 
 whole of Erskine's Institutes,* that the details might be im- 
 pressed in his memory. 
 
 The progress of the Utrecht arrangement is reported in the 
 following letter to Mr. Temple, dated 25th July : — 
 
 " I have this night received a large packet from my father, 
 with my letter of credit, and several letters of recommendation 
 to diiferent people in Holland. The letters have been sent open 
 for me to seal, so I have been amused to see the different modes 
 of treating that favourite subject myself. Sir David Dalrymple 
 has written to Count Nassau ; his letter is in French and is 
 exceedingly genteel. He recommends Mr. Boswell as un jeune 
 ho7fime dc famille ct de m4rite, and hopes he will find in the 
 Count le guide et le protecteur de sa Jeicnesse. My father writes 
 to Mynheer Abrahamus Gronovius, an old literatus at Leyden. 
 It is an excellent letter, and recalls their old ideas with more 
 liveliness than you would imagine. I have several other letters, 
 so that I can be at no loss where I am going, especially as I 
 have got some relations of the first fashion at the Hague. My 
 father has allowed me £60 a quarter — £240 a year ; that is not 
 a great allowance, but with economy I may live very well upon 
 it, for Holland is a cheap country. However, I am determined 
 not to be straitened, nor to encourage the least narrowness of 
 
 * "Institutes of the Law of Scotland," by John Erskine, of 
 Carnock. A standard book of reference in the law courts of Scot- 
 land.
 
 38 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 disposition as to saving money, but will draw upon my father 
 for any sums I find necessary. My afi'airs being thus far settled, 
 I must set out soon. I can have no excuse for indulging my- 
 self in a much longer stay in London ; and yet I must own to 
 you, my dear friend, that I feel a good deal of uneasiness at the 
 thoughts of quitting the place where my affection is truly 
 centred, for there I enjoy most happiness ; however, I am deter- 
 mined to go next week. I hope I shall not be feeble-minded, 
 but pluck up manly resolution, and consider that I am leaving 
 London in order to see the world, store my mind with more 
 ideas, establish a proper character, and then return to the metro- 
 polis much happier, and more qualified for a solid relish of its 
 advantages." 
 
 After the lapse of three days Boswell wrote to Mr. Temple 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Inner Tcm'plc, 
 "2Qth July, 1763. 
 "My DEAR Temple, 
 
 "I have now fixed to-morrow se'nnight, Friday, the 5th of 
 August, for the day of my departure ; and on Saturday, the Gth, 
 I shall be upon the Channel. Alas, my friend ! let me disclose 
 my weakness to you. My departure fills me with a kind of 
 gloom that quite overshadows my mind. I could almost weep 
 to tliink of leaving dear London and the calm retirement of the 
 Inner Temple. I am now launching into the wide world, and 
 am to be long at a distance from my dear Temple, whose kind 
 and amiable counsel never failed to soothe my dejected mind. 
 You may see I am somewhat melancholy; pray comfort me. 
 This is very effeminate and very young, but I cannot help it. 
 j\Iy time is fixed, and I will go ; I have taken my resolution, and 
 you shall see that I can keep to it. I enclose you a friendly dis- 
 sertation, which you may read at your leisure ; it will sliow 
 how much stronger my mind was last night only. I am just 
 troing to meet JNIr. Johnson at the ' Turk's Head.' " 
 
 The meeting with Johnson in the" Turk's Head" coffee-house
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 39 
 
 is duly chronicled in the "Life." Boswell expressed himself 
 
 as resolved on proceeding to Utrecht, and asked for advice. 
 
 " Come," said Johnson, " let us make a day of it ; let us go 
 
 down to Greenwich and dine, and talk of it fully, so that I shall 
 
 say,— 
 
 * On Thames's bank in silent thought we stood, 
 "Where Greenwich smiles upon the silver flood,' " * 
 
 The friends proceeded to Greenwich on Saturday, the 30th. 
 They inspected the hospital, walked in the park, and returning 
 to London by the river, closed the day's excursion by supping 
 together at the "Turk's Head." During the evening Boswell 
 entertained his Mentor by expatiating on the history of his 
 House, and tlie extent and importance of the family estate. By 
 Johnson no allusion was made to the ostensible purpose of the 
 meeting; it was enough that on a day of the week when Boswell 
 was likely to meet with bad counsellors, he and his purse 
 were protected from their embrace. The friends met on Sunday. 
 On Tuesday they were both morning and evening together. On 
 Wednesday evening they supped at the " Turk's Head," when 
 Johnson renewed his promise to start with his friend for 
 Harwich early on Friday morning. 
 
 As Boswell was for a considerable period to be left to his 
 own control, Sir David Dalrymple sent him a letter of advice, 
 along with some commissions to be executed in course of his 
 tour. To Sir David's letter Boswell on the 2nd August made 
 the following answer : — 
 
 " My scepticism was not owing to thinking wrong, but to not 
 thinking at all. It is a matter of great moment to keep a sense 
 
 * This account of the quotation from Johnson's poem of 
 '' London " is contained in a letter addressed by Boswell to Sir David 
 Dalrymple. In the " Life of Johnson " Boswell states that the quo- 
 tation was made by himself.
 
 40 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 of religion constantly impressed upon our minds. If that divine 
 guest does not occupy part of the space, vain intruders will; 
 and when once they have got in it is difficult to get them out 
 again. I shall remember your commission about the Greek 
 Lyrics. I shall hear what the librarian says, and I shall 
 make diligent search myself. As to the ]\ISS. of Anacreon, 
 JNIr. Johnson says he doubts much if there be such a thing at 
 Leyden." 
 
 Of no settled convictions, Boswell was, under his protestations 
 of orthodoxy, considerably tinged with Demjjster's scepticism. 
 Sir David Dalrymple, who had formerly sought to rescue him 
 from the Scylla of credulity, was now attempting his deliverance 
 from the Charybdis of doubt. Boswell on the 3rd August com- 
 municated with Mr. Temple : — 
 
 "To-morrow morning, at five o'clock, I set out upon my 
 travels. I am much hurried with putting all my things in order. 
 I have left some parcels in one of the drawers, which I beg you 
 will keep for me till I return. I have been a great deal with 
 Mr. Johnson of late, and (would you believe it ?) his friendship 
 for me is so great that he insists on seeing me sail, and has 
 actually taken a place in the coach to accompany me to 
 Harwich." 
 
 In the " Life of Johnson " the narrative is continued : — 
 
 " On Friday, August 5, we set out early in the morning in the 
 Harwich stage-coach. A fat elderly gentlewoman and a young 
 Dutchman seemed the most inclined among us to conversation. 
 At the inn where we dined, the gentlewoman said that she had 
 done her best to educate her children ; and particidarly that she 
 had never suffered them to be a moment idle. Johnson : ' I wish 
 madam, you would educate me too ; for I have been an idle 
 fellow all my life.' ' I am sure, sir,' said she, ' you have not 
 been idle.' Johnson : ' Nay, madam, it is very true ; and that 
 gentleman there,' pointing to me, ' has been idle. He was idle
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 41 
 
 at Edinburgh. His father sent him to Glasgow, where he 
 continued to be idle. He then came to London, where he has 
 been very idle ; and now he is going to Utrecht, where he will 
 be as idle as ever.' I asked him privately how he could expose 
 me so. Johnson : ' Pooh ! pooh ! ' said he ; ' they know nothing 
 about you, and will think of it no more.' , . . Next 
 day we got to Harwich to dinner; and my passage in the 
 packet-boat to Helvoetsluys being secured, and my baggage put 
 on board, we dined at an inn by ourselves. . . . We went 
 and looked at the church, and having gone into it, and walked 
 up to the altar, Johnson, whose piety was constant and fervent, 
 sent me to luy knees, saying, * Now that you are going to leave 
 your native country, recommend yourself to the protection of 
 your Creator and Eedeemer.' . . . My revered friend 
 walked down with me to the beach, where we embraced and 
 parted with tenderness, and engaged to correspond by letters. I 
 said, ' I hope, sir, you will not forget me in my absence.' John- 
 son: 'Nay, sir, it is more likely that you should forget me than 
 that I should forget you.' As the vessel put out to sea I kept my 
 eyes upon him for a considerable time, while he remained rolling 
 his majestic frame in his usual manner ; and at last I perceived 
 him walk back into the town, and he disappeared." 
 
 On the 8th December Dr. Johnson addressed to Boswell his 
 first letter. He entreated him to study civil law as his father 
 had advised, and the ancient languages, as he had personally 
 resolved upon. He then proceeds to depict his friend's weak- 
 nesses in these forcible terms : — 
 
 '* You know a gentleman, who when first he set his foot 
 in the gay world, as he prepared himself to whirl in the 
 vortex of pleasure, imagined a total indifference and universal 
 negligence to be the most agreeable concomitants of youth, and 
 the strongest indication of an easy temper and a quick appre- 
 hension. "Vacant to every object, and sensible of every im- 
 pulse, he thought that an appearance of diligence would deduct 
 something from the reputation of genius, and hoped that he
 
 42 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 should appear to attain, amidst all the ease of carelessness, and 
 all the tumult of diversion, that knowledge and those accom- 
 plishments which mortals of the common fabric obtain only by 
 mute abstraction and solitary drudgery. He tried this scheme 
 of life awhile, was made weary of it by his sense and his virtue ; 
 he then wished to return to his studies, and finding long habits 
 of idleness and pleasure harder to be cured than he expected, 
 still wishing to retain his claim to some extraordinary preroga-' 
 tives, resolved the common consequences of irregularity into an 
 unalterable decree of destiny, and concluded that nature had 
 originally formed him incapable of rational enjoyment. Let all 
 such fancies, illusive and destructive, be banished henceforward 
 from your thoughts for ever. Eesolve and keep your resolution ; 
 choose, and pursue your choice. If you spend this day in study, 
 you will find yourself still more able to study to-morrow ; not 
 that you are to expect that you shall at once obtain a complete 
 victory." 
 
 Johnson had commended his friend for keeping a journaL* 
 He concludes his letter by expressing a hope that he is " enrich- 
 ing his journal with many observations upon the country" in 
 which he was residing. 
 
 At Utrecht Boswell obtained the friendship of jM. Trotz, the 
 learned civilian, whose prelections on civil law he attended for 
 some months. He also became intimate with the Eev. William 
 Brown, pastor of the English congregation at Utrecht, subse- 
 quently Professor of Church History at St. Andrews. Anecdotes 
 related by M. Trotz and Mr. Brown are preserved in Boswell's 
 Commonplace-book. 
 
 * " I could give you pages of strong sense and humour which I 
 have heard from that great man, and which are treasured up in my 
 journal. And here I must inform you that he desired me to keep 
 just the journal that I do ; and when I told him that it was already 
 my practice, he said he was glad I was upon so good a plan." — ^JS. 
 letter from Boswell of I3th Juhj, 17 63, j'reserved at New Hailes.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 43 
 
 Lord Auchinleck had designed that his son should prosecute 
 his studies at Utrecht for two years. The proposal was not a 
 hopeful one, and it was not realized. Before his first term was 
 completed, Boswell longed for the pleasures of travel : as the 
 term closed he hastened into the country. He visited Leyden 
 and other noted localities in the Netherlands, and passed into 
 Germany. He reached Berlin in July, where he delivered a letter 
 of introduction to Mr., afterwards Sir Andrew Mitchell, British 
 Ambassador at the Prussian Court. By this accomplished 
 gentleman he was well received and hospitably entertained. 
 From Berlin he wrote a letter to his father, expatiating on the 
 advantages of travel, and entreating that such a remittance 
 might be sent him as would carry him into Switzerland, and 
 from thence into Italy. Pending his father's answer, he visited 
 the duchies of Hanover and Brunswick. Eeturning to Berlin 
 on the 27th of August he found a letter from his father, strongly 
 disapproving his proposal for a lengthened tour, and allowing 
 him only the indulgence of visiting France before resuming his 
 legal studies at Utrecht. Mortified by his father's decision, 
 and the severely peremptory character of his letter, he thought 
 of waiting on Mr. Mitchell to entreat his aid and intervention. 
 The ambassador was from home ; he had gone with his family 
 to Spa, where he was still to remain some weeks. Procuring 
 his address, Boswell sent him a lengthened communication, 
 which owing to its peculiar manner we present without 
 abridgment : — 
 
 " You may believe, sir, that I was a good deal surprised to 
 hear, upon my return to Berlin, that onze Gezant * was gone. 
 There was indeed a surmise at Brunswick that you intended to 
 return to England this season. I was asked if it was true, and 
 very innocently affirmed that there was nothing in it. I find 
 
 * Dutch for " our envoy."
 
 44 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 however, that when a man leaves a Minister at a foreign Court 
 but for a fortnight, he is not sure of finding him upon his return. 
 Your departure is a good deal unlucky for me, not only as it 
 deprives me of conversation which gave me uncommon pleasure, 
 and invariably accustomed me to rational thinking and honour- 
 able sentiment, but because I now particularly stand in need of 
 your prudent and kind counsel with respect to my travels. I 
 have had another letter from my father, in which he continues 
 of opinion that travelling is of very little use, and may do a great 
 deal of harm. I shall not repeat what I have formerly said of 
 my father's particular character; I say ■particular^ for rarely 
 will you find a man of so excellent a frame of body, and so 
 noble a mind as to have passed through life with uniform pro- 
 priety of conduct.* For my own part, I own that I am not 
 such a favourite of nature. Think not that I intend to plead 
 machinery, and escape from the censure due to the faults which 
 I have committed. I only would have you consider that judg- 
 ment is a natural gift as well as imagination, and force of mind 
 is in a great measure independent of our endeavours : think of 
 me as I am, and pronounce accordingly. 
 
 " I esteem and love my father, and I am determined to do 
 what is in my power to make him easy and happy; but you 
 will allow that I may endeavour to make him happy and at the 
 same time not be too hard upon myself. I must use you so 
 much with the freedom of a friend as to tell you that, with the 
 vivacity which you allowed me, I have a melancholy disposition. 
 To escape from the gloom of dark speculation, I have made 
 excursions into the fields of amusement, perhaps of folly. I 
 have found that amusement and folly are beneath me, and that 
 without some laudable pursuit my life must be insipid and 
 wearisome. I therefore took the resolution of leaving London, 
 and settled myself for the winter at Utrecht, where I recovered 
 my inclination for study and rational thinking. I then laid my 
 account with travelling for a couple of years, but I found my 
 father's views to be entirely different. You saw the letter which 
 
 * The meaning here is defective.
 
 MEMOIK OF JAMES BOSWELL. 45 
 
 I wrote him from this, and I flatter myself that you approved of 
 it, I cannot expect his answer for some weeks ; in the mean- 
 time he tells me that he would not oppose my passing another 
 winter at Utrecht, so that he does not grudge the time which 
 I ask. As for the money, I should think for one year a little 
 extraordinary expense is not thrown away, when it is also to be 
 considered that what I spend now I shall not have some years 
 hence. My father seems much against my going to Italy, but 
 gives me leave to go from there and pass some months in Paris. 
 I own that the words of the apostle Paul, " I must see Eome," 
 are strongly borne in upon my mind ; it would give me infinite 
 pleasure ; it would give me talk for a lifetime, and I should go 
 home to Auchinleck with serene contentment. I am no liber- 
 tine, and have a moral certainty of suffering no harm in Italy ; 
 I can also assure you that I shall be as moderate as possible in 
 my expenses. I do not intend to travel as Mi Lord Anglois, but 
 merely as a scholar and a man of elegant curiosity, and I am 
 told that in that character I may live in Italy very reasonably. 
 I obviate your objection of my being obliged to live like others, 
 by assuring you that I have none of that second-rate ambition 
 which actuates most young men of fortune upon their travels. 
 After passing four months on classic ground, I would come 
 through Prance, and go home, as I said to my father, titi conviva 
 saiur. 
 
 "Now, sir, tell me fairly if I am unreasonable. Upon my 
 honour I cannot think that I am. I give you my word that 
 my father's inclinations shall be as inviolable laws to his son ; 
 but don't you think that I may just remonstrate before I con- 
 sider an act as passed ? Don't you think that, rather than go 
 home contrary to what I much desire, and cannot help thinking 
 very proper, — don't you think it worth while to humour me so 
 far as to allow me my year and a reasonable sum, after which 
 I return clear and contented, without any pretence for my 
 stormy disposition to murmur at ? I would beg, sir, that you 
 may write to my father your opinion as to this matter, and put it 
 in the light that you think it deserves. In the meantime I can see 
 little advantage to be had at Berlin. I shall, however, remain
 
 46 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 here a fortnight, after which I intend passing by IMannheim, 
 and one or two more of the German Courts, to Geneva ; I am 
 then at the point from which I may either steer to Italy or to 
 France. I shall see Voltaire. I shall also see Switzerland and 
 Rousseau ; these two men are to me greater objects than most 
 statues or pictures. I take this opportunity to assure the loved 
 and respected friend of my father that I am serenely happy at 
 having obtained his acquaintance. I would hope that I shall 
 not be found unworthy of his regard, and I wish very honestly 
 for an opportunity of showing my real esteem for such a charac- 
 ter as I could draw to any one else but to himself." * 
 
 In a postscript Boswell begged an early reply. His letter, 
 somewhat Johnsonian in style, actually reflected some of Dr. 
 Johnson's sentiments respecting himself, in the letter received at 
 Utrecht. It was sufficiently candid to induce friendship, and 
 not more ambitious than the ardour of youth might have excused 
 or justified. But Mr. Mitchell had no desire to arbitrate between 
 father and son in a matter with which he was personally uncon- 
 cerned. He contented himself with administering to the young 
 traveller a lecture on filial obedience, and declined all further 
 negotiation. Lord Auchinleck meanwhile relented without 
 further pressure, assented to the Italian project, and sent the 
 necessary funds. To the Ambassador Boswell addressed a letter 
 from Geneva on the 2Gth December ; it commenced in a style 
 sufficiently exultant : — 
 
 " I thank you for your letter from Spa, although it gave me 
 no great encouragement in my scheme of going to Italy, You 
 tell me gravely to follow the plan which my father prescribed, 
 whatever it may be, and in doing so 1 shall certainly act most 
 
 * " INIeraoirs and Papers of Sir Andrew Mitchell, K.B., Envoy 
 Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from the Court of Great 
 Britain to the Court of Prussia, from 1756 to 1771," edited by 
 Andrew Bisset, Esq., vol. ii., p. 381.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 47 
 
 wisely. I forgive you this, for I say just the same to young 
 people when I advise. To enter into detail of the little circum- 
 stances which compose the felicity of another, is what a man of 
 any genius can hardly submit to. We therefore give a good, 
 wholesome, general counsel ; and he who consults us thinks a 
 little, and then endeavours to take his own way as well as he 
 can. I have, however, the happiness to inform you that my 
 father has consented that I shall go to Italy. Upon my soul, I 
 am grateful to the most worthy of men : it will be hard if we are 
 not well together, for I love him with the strongest affection. 
 If I find that I cannot succeed in my own plans in such a way 
 as to convince my father that I am in the right, I shall do my 
 utmost to fulfil the plan beyond which he cannot think to look. 
 You may suppose what my ideas are, for they are of your old 
 acquaintances. One thing I am sure of, and by the undisguised 
 honour of a man of pro bity I swear,shall chiefly influence me — 
 a regard to the happiness of him to whom I owe so much, 
 Believe me I have a soul." 
 
 Had Boswell concluded his letter at this point he might have 
 merited some praise for snubbing the ambassador who had 
 lectured him on filial duty. But he goes on to entreat 
 Mr. Mitchell's influence on behalf of the father and brother of 
 his friend Mr. Temple. The father he describes as formerly an 
 officer in the Customs, who had forfeited his appointment 
 by becoming insolvent. The son. Master Eobert, is now a 
 lieutenant on half-pay. Through Mr. Mitchell he desires a 
 Government post for the one, and fuU pay for the other. He 
 assures the ambassador that excepting his Sovereign he is " the 
 only man in Britain " he would ask a favour of. " If you can 
 aid me," he adds, " you will most truly oblige a worthy fellow, 
 for such I am." To this second communication the ambassador 
 vouchsafed no answer. 
 
 Through a part of Germany Boswell was accompanied 
 by the Earl Marischal, who ordinarily resided at Berlin, and
 
 48 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 who had, during a recent visit to Scotland, formed the acquaint- 
 ance of Lord Aucliiiileck. With introductions from his lord- 
 ship he visited Voltaire at Ferney, and Eousseau in the 
 wilds of Neufchatel. It is to be regretted that he did not 
 record his conversations with these celebrated persons. Crossing 
 the Alps, he visited the principal towns of Italy. He spent 
 some time in Italy with Lord Mountstuart, eldest son of the 
 Earl of Bute. To this nobleman he dedicated his thesis when 
 he was called to the Bar. 
 
 The inhabitants of Corsica were at this time engaged against 
 the Genoese in their memorable struggle for liberty, and Pascal 
 Paoli, their patriotic leader, had become celebrated over Europe. 
 To BosweU he had been warmly commended by Rousseau, who 
 had corresponded with the Corsicans respecting the formation of 
 their laws. BosweU hinted to Eousseau that he might proceed to 
 Corsica, and when in April, 1765, he reached Rome, he addressed 
 a letter to the philosopher, begging an introduction to Paoli. 
 Not receiving a reply, he wrote to Rousseau a second time, 
 informing him that should he withhold the introduction sought 
 for " he should certainly go without it, and probably be hanged 
 as a spy." * On his arrival at Florence, in August, he received 
 a letter from " the wild philosopher," recommending him first to 
 Mr. Buttafoco, Captain of the Royal Italian Regiment at 
 Viscovado, and in his absence to General Paoli. At Leghorn 
 he procured from Count Rivarola, the Sardinian Consul, a 
 special letter to Paoli and other leading persons at Corsica. 
 
 Arriving in the island, Boswell was courteously received by 
 Signer Antonetti, to whom he presented a letter from Count 
 Rivarola. After entertaimng him at his house, Antonetti 
 facilitated his progress to the town of Sollacaro, the head- 
 
 * EoswL'H's "Account of and Tour to Corsica," London, 17G9, 8vo., 
 p. 288.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 49 
 
 quarters of Paoli. On his route Boswell heard that in the 
 castle of Corte were detained three murderers, a woman and 
 two men ; he gratified his curiosity by conversin g with them. 
 At his request the executioner was also presented to him. 
 
 Eeaching SoUacaro', Boswell was brought into the presence of 
 Paoli, to whom he handed his credentials. Paoli received him 
 with reserve, but afterwards became friendly. To the general 
 he described himself in these terms : — " With a mind naturally 
 inclined to melancholy, and a keen desire of inquiry, I have 
 intensely applied myself to metaphysical researches, and 
 reasoned beyond my depth on such subjects as it is not given 
 to man to know. I have rendered my mind a comera (sic) 
 obscura ; in the very heat of youth I felt the 71071 est taTiti, 
 the omnia va7iitas of one who has exhausted all the sweets of 
 his being, and is weary with dull repetition. I told him that 
 I had almost become for ever incapable of taking a part in 
 active life." * 
 
 Paoli introduced Boswell to his nobility, who severally 
 honoured him with visits. He was one day mounted on Paoli's 
 horse, with its rich garniture of crimson velvet and gold lace. 
 In journeying he was attended by the general's guards, an 
 honour from which he "enjoyed a sort of luxury of noble senti- 
 ment." From Paoli's palace at Corte, the capital of Corsica, he 
 addressed a letter to Dr. Johnson, which he describes as " full 
 of generous enthusiasm." Having related what he had done 
 and seen, he summed up ; " I dare to call this a spirited tour ; 
 I dare to challenge your approbation." f 
 
 From Corsica Boswell communicated to Eousseau, now in , 
 France, the details of his visit to Paoli, and on his reaching 
 Paris received the philosopher's commands to bring with him 
 
 * Boswell's " Corsica," 3rd edition, p. 349. 
 
 t "Life of Johnson." 
 
 E
 
 50 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 into England, whither he had preceded him, the notorious 
 companion of his household, Ther^se La Vasseur. Boswell 
 accepted the mission, and accompanied Eousseau's mistress from 
 Paris to London. In reference to his intended progress, Mr. 
 Hume, at whose instance Rousseau proceeded to England, thus 
 communicated with his ingenious correspondent, the Countess 
 
 de Bouflers : — 
 
 "12th of January, 1766. 
 
 " A letter has come open to me from Guy, the bookseller, 
 by which I learn that Mademoiselle* sets out first in company 
 with a friend of mine, a young gentleman very good-humoured, 
 very agreeable, and very mad. He visited Eousseau in his 
 mountains, who gave him a recommendation to Paoli, the King 
 of Corsica ; where this gentleman, whose name is Boswell, went 
 last summer in search of adventures. He has such a rage for 
 literature, that I dread some event fatal to our friend's honour. 
 For remember the story of Terentia, who was first married to 
 Cicero, then to Sallust, and at last, in her old age, married a 
 young nobleman, who imagined that she must possess some 
 secret which would convey to him eloquence and genius." 
 
 At Paris, in the house of Mr. Waters, an English banker, 
 Boswell found a letter from Dr. Johnson, dated the 1-ith January. 
 It proceeded thus : — 
 
 " Be assured for the present, that nothing lias lessened either 
 the esteem or love with which I dismissed you at Harwich. Both 
 have been increased by all that I have been told of you by 
 yourself or others, and when you return, you will return to an 
 unaltered and, I hope, unalterable friend. 
 
 " All that you have to fear from me is the vexation of disap- 
 pointing me. No man loves to frustrate expectations which 
 have been formed in his favour ; and the pleasure which I 
 promise myself from your journals and remarks is so great, that 
 
 * "Private Correspondence of David Hume." Lond. 1820, 4to., 
 p. 131.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 51 
 
 perhaps no degree of attention or discernment will be sufficient 
 to afford it. 
 
 " Come home, however, and take your chance. I long to see 
 you and to hear you, and hope that we shall not be so long 
 separated again. Come home, and expect such welcome as is 
 due to him whom a wise and noble curiosity has led where 
 perhaps, no native of this country ever was before. 
 
 "As your father's liberality has indulged you with so long a 
 ramble, I doubt not but that you will think his sickness, or even his 
 desire to see you, a sufficient reason for hastening your return. 
 The longer we live, and the more we think, the higher value we 
 learn to put on the friendship and tenderness of parents and 
 friends. Parents we can have but once ; and he promises himself 
 too much who enters life with the expectation of finding many 
 friends. Upon some motive I hope that you will be here soon, 
 and am willing to think that it will be an inducement to your 
 return that it is sincerely desired by, dear sir, your affectionate 
 humble servant, 
 
 " Sam Johnson." 
 
 Boswell reached London in the beginning of February, and 
 at once visited Dr. Johnson at his house in Johnson's Court. 
 Eeceived with much cordiality, he proceeded to entertain the 
 lexicographer with Voltaire's opinions of some of the English 
 poets. In the evening the friends supped together at the Mitre 
 Tavern, when Boswell learnt, for the first time, that Johnson 
 had become practically an abstainer. On Saturday, the 15th 
 February, Boswell and Johnson again met at the " Mitre," the 
 former being accompanied by his friend Mr. Temple. Boswell 
 spoke of Ptousseau, and said he had met with Mr. Wilkes 
 in Italy, and had enjoyed his society. Johnson denounced both 
 the philosopher and the politician in his severest manner. 
 
 In the course of their conversation General Paoli had remarked 
 to Boswell that he might inform the members of his court that the
 
 52 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Corsicans were worthy of greater support tlian tliey had hitherto 
 received. Bos well construed the remark into a request, and, 
 before he left the island, commissioned a Corsican dress in 
 which he might, to members of the English Cabinet, plead the 
 cause of Paoli. In this costume he waited on several members 
 of Government, and some noted politicians. From Mr. 
 Walpole he experienced a courteous reception. Mr. Pitt wrote 
 him a short letter, which, in the hope of producing a corre- 
 spondence between him and the minister, he acknowledged as 
 
 follows : — 
 
 "St. James' Street, Feb. 19, 1766. 
 
 " Sir, — I have the honour to receive your most obliging letter, 
 and can with difficulty restrain myself from paying you com- 
 pliments on the very genteel manner in which you are pleased 
 to treat me. But I come from a people among whom even the 
 lowest arts of insinuation are unknown. However you may, by 
 political circumstances, be in one view a simple individual, yet, 
 sir, Mr. Pitt will always be the prime minister of the brave, the 
 secretary of freedom and of spirit ; and I hope that I may with 
 propriety talk to him of the views of the illustrious Paoli. Be 
 that as it may, I shall very much value the honour of being 
 admitted to your acquaintance. " I am, &c., 
 
 " James Boswell." * 
 
 Informed of his mother's death, Boswell left London for 
 Auchinleck. His father was pleased to find him somewhat less 
 volatile, and quite reconciled to the legal profession. On the 
 26th July he was admitted advocate. His "Thesis on Civil 
 Law," published at his admission, he transmitted to Dr. Johnson, 
 who criticised it with severity ; he, however, heartily commended 
 his resolution to obey his father, and seriously to occupy him- 
 self with business. His proposal to write a history of Corsica 
 Dr. Johnson objected to. " You have," he wrote, "no materials 
 
 * "Chatham Correspondence," vol. ii., p. 388.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 53 
 
 which others have not, or may have. You have, somehow or 
 other, warmetl your imagiuation. I wish there were some cure, 
 like the lover's leap, for all heads of which some single idea has 
 obtained an unreasonable and irregular possession. Mind your 
 own affairs, and leave the Corsicans to theirs." 
 
 Aware of Boswell's tendency to form resolutions, which he 
 afterwards departed from, Dr. Johnson entreated him to aban- 
 don his practice of vow-making. To a letter from the lexico- 
 grapher on this subject Boswell made the following answer : — 
 
 " Aucliinlcck, 6th November, 1766. 
 " Might I venture to differ from you with regard to the 
 utility of vows ? I am sensible that it may be very dangerous 
 to make vows rashly, and without a due consideration. But I 
 cannot help thinking that they may often be of great advan- 
 tage to one of a variable judgment and irregular inclinations. 
 I always remember a passage in one of your letters to our 
 Italian friend, Baretti ; where, talking of the monastic life, you 
 say you do not wonder that serious men should put themselves 
 under the protection of a religious order, when they have found 
 how unable they are to take care of themselves. For my own 
 part, without affecting to be a Socrates, I am sure I have a more 
 than ordinary struggle to maintain with the Evil Principle ; and 
 all the methods I can devise are little enough to keep me 
 tolerably steady in the paths of rectitude." 
 
 lu February, 1767, Boswell conveyed his congratulations to 
 j\lr. Temple on his being admitted to priest's orders, and insti- 
 tuted Hector of Mamhead. The following remarks with which 
 his congratulations were accompanied would have reflected credit 
 on Dr. Johnson : — 
 
 " I am sincerely happy that you are at length the Eeverend 
 Mr. Temple. I view the profession of a clergyman in an amiable 
 and respectable light. Don't be moved by declamations against 
 ecclesiastical history, as if that could blacken the sacred order.
 
 54 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 I confess that it is not in ecclesiastical history that we find the 
 most agreeable account of divines : their politics, their ambition, 
 and their cruelty are there displayed; but remember, Temple, 
 you are there reading the vices of only political divines, — of 
 such individuals as in so numerous a body have been very un- 
 worthy members of the Church, and should have rather been 
 employed in the rudest secular concerns. But if you would 
 judge fairly of the priests of Jesus, you must consider how 
 many of the distressed they have comforted, how many of the 
 wicked they have reclaimed, how many of the good they have 
 improved ; consider the lives of thousands of worthy pious 
 divines who have been a blessing to their parishes. This is 
 just, Temple. You say the truths of morality are written in the 
 liearts of all men, and they find it their interest to practise them. 
 ]My dear friend, will you believe a specious moral essayist 
 against your own experience ? Don't you in the very same 
 letter complain of the wickedness of those around you ? Don't 
 you talk of the tares in society ? My friend, it is your office to 
 labour cheerfully in the vineyard, and, if possible, to leave not 
 a tare in IMamhead. 
 
 ***** 
 " In a word, my dear Temple, be a good clergyman, and you 
 will be happy both here and hereafter." 
 
 Boswell proceeds to advise his friend to marry a suitable 
 wife, and expresses a regret that he himself cannot wed so long 
 as his father lives. Having administered these virtuous 
 counsels, he intimates that he has involved himself in an illicit 
 amour— or, as he expresses it, that he is attached to " a dear 
 infidel." The person so described was a married woman, who 
 had separated from her husband. Boswell had met her in the 
 autumn of 1705 at Moffat Spa, where he had been sojourning 
 with his friend Mr. Johnston, of Grange, a Dumfriesshire 
 landowner. He had brought her to Edinburgh, and she was 
 now maintained at his expense. In mitigation of his conduct 
 in associating with her, he thus expatiates to Mr. Temple : —
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 55 
 
 " Don't think her unfaithful ; I could not love her if she was. 
 There is baseness in all deceit which my soul is virtuous enough 
 to abhor, and therefore I look with horror on adultery. But 
 my amiable mistress is no longer bound to him who was her 
 husband : he has used her shockingly ill ; he has deserted her ; 
 he lives with another. Is she not then free ? She is, it is clear, 
 and no arguments can disguise it. She is now mine ; and were 
 she to be unfaithful to me, she ought to be pierced with a Corsi- 
 can poniard ; but I believe she loves me sincerely. She has done 
 everything to please me : she is perfectly generous, and would 
 not hear of any present." 
 
 The first part of Boswell's letter embracing these incongruous 
 details is dated " 1st February," and occupies seven folio pages. 
 With temporary discretion the writer hesitated to send off so 
 strange a communication ; at length, on the 28th of the month, 
 he resumed his narrative, which after another interval was con- 
 cluded on the 4th March, and thereupon despatched. Eespecting 
 his unhappy amour he writes : — 
 
 " I have talked a great deal of my sweet little mistress ; I am, 
 however, uneasy about her. Furnishing a house and maintain- 
 ing her with a maid will cost me a great deal of money, and it 
 is too like marriage, or too much a settled plan of licentious- 
 ness ; but what can I do ? I have already taken the house, and 
 the lady has agreed to go in at Whitsuntide ; I cannot in honour 
 draw back. . . . Now am I tormented because my charmer 
 has formerly loved others. Besides, she is ill-bred, quite a 
 rompish girl. She debases my dignity ; she has no refinement, 
 but she is very handsome and very lively. What is it to me 
 that she has formerly loved ? so have I. I am positive that 
 since I first courted her at Moffat she has been constant to me • 
 she is kind, she is generous. What shall I do ? I wish I could 
 get off; and yet how awkward would it be! . . . What is 
 to be thought of this life, my friend ? Hear the story of my last 
 three days. After tormenting myself with reflecting on my 
 charmer's former loves, and ruminating on parting with her, I
 
 56 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 went to her. I could not conceal my being distressed. I told 
 her I was very unhappy, but I would not tell her why. She 
 took this very seriously, and was so much affected that she went 
 next morning and gave up her house. I went in the afternoon 
 and secured the house, and then drank tea with her. She was 
 much agitated; she said she was determined to go and board 
 herself in the north of England, and that I used her very ill. 1 
 expostulated with her; I was sometimes inclined to let her go, 
 and sometimes my heart was like to burst within me. I hold 
 her dear hand ; her eyes were full of passion ; I told her what 
 made me miserable; she was pleased to find it was nothing 
 worse. She had imagined I was suspicious of her fidelity, and 
 she thought that very ungenerous in reconsidering her behaviour. 
 She said I should not mind her faults before I knew her, since 
 her conduct was now more circumspect. She owned that she 
 loved me more than she had ever done her husband. All was 
 well again." 
 
 Boswell went out, and the same evening got drunk, and com- 
 mitted gross follies. On the 30th March he wrote to j\Ir. Temple 
 from Auchinleck. He informed him that as his Circe had gone 
 to Moffat, he has " had time to think coolly," and to call up 
 " that reason which he had so often contradicted." He pro- 
 ceeds : — 
 
 " Johnston, an old friend of mine, a writer in Edinburgh, but 
 too much of an indolent philosopher to have great business, being 
 rather a worthy country gentleman, with a paternal estate of 
 £100 a year, was much distressed with my unhappy passion. 
 He was at Moffat when it first began, and he marked the advance 
 of the fever. It was he who assured me, upon his honour, that 
 my fair one had a very bad character, and gave me some 
 instances wliich made my lovesick heart recoil. He had some 
 influence with me, but my brother David had more. To him I 
 discovered my weakness, my slavery, and begged his advice. He 
 gave it me like a man. I gloried in him. I roused all my 
 spirit, and at last 1 was myself again. I immediately wrote her
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 57 
 
 a letter, of which I enclose the scroll for your perusal. She and 
 I have always corresponded in such a manner that no mischief 
 
 could come of it, for we supposed a Miss , to whom all 
 
 my amorous vows were paid ... I have not yet got her 
 answer: what will it be, think you? I shall judge of her cha- 
 racter from it. I shall see if she is abandoned or virtuous ; I 
 mean both in a degree ; I shall at any rate be free. What a 
 snare have I escaped ! Do you remember Ulysses and 
 Circe ?— 
 
 ' Sub domina meretrice vixisset turpis et exeors.' 
 
 "My life is one of the most romantic that I believe either 
 you or I really know of, and yet I am a very sensible, good 
 sort of man. What is the meaning of this, Temple ? You may 
 depend upon it that very soon my follies will be at an end, and 
 I shall turn out an admirable member of society. Now that I 
 have given my mind the turn, I am totally emancipated from 
 my charmer, as much as from the gardener's daughter who now 
 puts on my fire and performs menial offices like any other 
 wench, and yet just this time twelvemonth I was so madly in 
 love as to think of marrying her. Should not this be an 
 everlasting lesson to me ? . . . How strangely do we colour 
 over our •^ices ! I startle when you talk of keeping another man's 
 wife, yet that was literally my scheme, though imagination 
 represented it just as being fond of a pretty, lovely, black little 
 lady, who to oblige me stayed in Edinburgh, and I very genteelly 
 paid her expenses." 
 
 From several letters to Mr. Temple at subsequent dates, it 
 appears that Boswell's discreditable amour was protracted for 
 some time longer. In the same letter he invited his friend's 
 counsel respecting certain matrimonial projects on which he 
 had embarked. 
 
 Amidst his dissipations and follies Boswell was not altogether 
 idle. To Mr. Temple he reported, in March, that he had at 
 the Bar earned sixty-five guineas during the winter, and that 
 his employment was steadily on the increase. He stated that
 
 58 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 ]\Ir. Hume augured favourably of liis work on Corsica; that 
 Eousseau had quarrelled with him as he had done with Hume; 
 that Dr. Gregory had sought his acquaintance, and that he 
 had received a long letter from General Paoli, and one of three 
 pages from Lord Chatham. 
 
 To Lord Chatham Boswell replied in characteristic fashion : — 
 
 " Auchinleck, April Sth, 1767. 
 
 " I have communicated to General Paoli the contents of your 
 lordship's letter, and I am persuaded he will think as I do. . . . 
 Your lordship applauds my ' generous warmth for so striking a 
 character as the able chief.' Indeed, my lord, I have the happi- 
 ness of being able to contemplate with supreme delight those 
 distinguished spirits by which God is sometimes pleased to 
 honour humanity, and as I have no personal favour to ask of 
 your lordship, I will tell you, with the confidence of one who 
 does not fear to be thought a flatterer, that your character, my 
 lord, has filled many of my best hours with that noble aduiiration 
 which a disinterested soul can enjoy in the bower of philosophy." 
 
 After informing his correspondent that he is about to publish 
 an account of Corsica, he proceeds : — 
 
 "As for myself, to please a worthy and respected father, 
 one of our Scots judges, I studied law, and am now fairly 
 entered to the bar. I begin to like it ; I can labour hard, I feel 
 myself coming forward, and I hope to be useful to my country. 
 Could your lordship find time to honour me now and then with 
 a letter ? 
 
 " I have been told how favourably your lordship has spoken of 
 me. To correspond with a Paoli and with a Chatham is enough 
 to keep a young man ever ardent in the pursuit of virtuous 
 fame." 
 
 The cool egotism which prompted Boswell, an undistinguished 
 youth, to beg an occasional letter from an illustrious and veteran 
 statesman is without a parallel in biography. At Edinburgh,
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 59 
 
 notwithstanding his obvious eccentricity, he enjoyed a kind of 
 literary status. As a patron of histrionic art he led a con- 
 siderable section of the Edinburgh youth ; and we have already 
 related, that at the request of Eoss, the player, he composed the 
 prologue spoken at the opening of the Edinburgh theatre in 
 December, 1767. By an act of indiscretion he nearly crushed 
 the institution he had helped to rear. He brought on the Edin- 
 burgh stage a comedy entitled "The Coquettes," to oblige Lady 
 Houston, by whom it was composed. On the third perform- 
 ance it was condemned as a bad translation of one of Cor- 
 neille's worst plays. Lady Houston was sister of Lord Cathcart, 
 one of Bos well's friends, and creditably enough he was content 
 to bear the censure of producing the piece rather than' expose 
 the foolish gentlewoman who had placed it in his hands. 
 
 Id his letter to Mr. Temple of the 30th March, 1767, he reports 
 concerning his forthcoming venture — " I am now seriously 
 engaged in my account of Corsica; it elevates my soul, and 
 makes me spcrncre humum. I shall have it finished by June." 
 Through Mr. Hume he endeavoured to secure Mr. Andrew Millar 
 as publisher ; but negotiations being unsatisfactory, he sold his 
 MS. for 100 guineas to Messrs. Edward and Charles Dilly, book- 
 sellers in the Poultry. In an ordinary octavo the work appeared 
 in the spring of 1768, with the title, "An Accoimt of Corsica: the 
 Journal of a Tour to that Island, and Memoirs of Pascal Paoli, by 
 James Boswell, Esq." It was dedicated, in flattering terms, to 
 Paoli; but the peculiarities of the writer were more apparent in his 
 preface. He there indicates his peculiar system of orthography. 
 " Of late," he writes, " it has become the fashion to render our 
 language more neat and trim by leaving out k after c, and u in 
 the last syllable of words wdiich used to end in our. The illus- 
 trious Mr. Samuel Johnson, who has alone executed in England 
 what was the task of whole academies in other countries, has
 
 60 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 been careful in liis dictionary to preserve the k as a mark of 
 Saxon original. lie lias for most part, too, been careful to pre- 
 serve the u, but he has also omitted it in several words. I have 
 retained the k, and have taken upon me to follow a general rule 
 with regard to words ending in our. Wherever a word originally 
 Latin has been transmitted to us through the medium of the 
 French I have written it with the characteristical u. Olir 
 attention to this may appear trivial, but I own I am one of 
 those who are curious in the formation of language in its various 
 modes ; and therefore, with that, the affinity of English with 
 otlier tongues may not be forgotten. If this work should at any 
 future period be reprinted, I hope that care wiU be taken of my 
 orthography." 
 
 Pursuant to his system, Boswell indulged the satisfaction of 
 writing authour for author, and trcmcndtious for a word known 
 only as tremendous. He closed his preface by intimating his 
 literary aspirations : — 
 
 " I should," he writes, " be proud to be known as an authour, 
 and I liave an ardent ambition for literary fame ; for of all posses- 
 sions I should imagine literary fame to be the most valuable. A 
 man who has been able to furnish a book which has been approved 
 by the world has established himself as a respectable character 
 in distant society, without any danger of having that character 
 lessened by the observation of his weaknesses. To preserve an 
 uniform dignity among those who see us every day is hardly 
 po.3sible, and to aim at it must put us under the fetters of a 
 perpetual restraint. The authour of an approved book may 
 {dlow his natural disposition an easy play, and yet indulge the 
 pride of superior genius when he considers that by those who 
 know him only as an authour he never ceases to be respected. 
 Such an authour, when in his hours of gloom and discontent, 
 may have the consolation to think that his writings are at that 
 very time giving pleasure to numbers, and such an authour may 
 cherish the hope of being remembered after death, which lias
 
 JIEMOIK OF JAMES BOSAVELL. 61 
 
 been a great object to the noblest minds in all ages. Whether 
 I may merit any portion of literary fame the public will judge. 
 Whatever my ambition may be, I trust that my confidence is not 
 too great, nor my hopes too sanguine." 
 
 Though subjected to some ridicule, owing to the extreme 
 egotism of the writer, the Corsican Journey was well received. 
 A second edition was called for within a few months. Boswell 
 proceeded to London to enjoy an anticipated ovation. When he 
 arrived Dr. Johnson was on a visit at Oxford, but Boswell by 
 letter solicited his commendation. Contrary to his hopes he 
 received this laconic answer — " I wish you would empty your 
 head of Corsica, which I think has filled it rather too long." 
 From Dr. Johnson such a reproof was intolerable. Boswell at 
 once despatched the following reply : — 
 
 "How can you bid me empty my head of Corsica? My 
 noble-minded friend, do you not feel for an oppressed nation 
 bravely struggling to be free ? Consider fairly what is the case. 
 The Corsicans never received any kindness from the Genoese. 
 They never agreed to be subject to them. They owe them 
 nothing, and when reduced to an abject state of slavery by 
 force, shall they not rise in the great cause of liberty, and break 
 the galling yoke ? And shall not every liberal soul be warm for 
 them ? Empty my head of Corsica ! Empty it of honour, 
 empty it of humanity, empty it of friendship, empty it of 
 piety. No ! while I live, Corsica and the cause of the brave 
 islanders shall ever employ much of my attention, shall ever 
 interest me in the sincerest manner." 
 
 Though Dr. Johnson imparted no praise, Boswell, on account 
 of his book, met with considerable attention. To Mr. Temple 
 he wrote on the 14th May, — 
 
 " I am really the great man now. I have had David Hume 
 in the forenoon, and Mr. Johnson in the afternoon of the same 
 day visiting me. Sir John Pringle, Dr. Franklin, and some 
 more company, dined with me to-day ; and Mr. Johnson and
 
 62 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 General Oglethorpe one day, Mr. Garrick alone another, and 
 David Hume and some more literati, dine with me next 
 week. I give admirable dinners and good claret; and the 
 moment I go abroad again, which will be in a day or two, I set 
 up my chariot. This is enjoying the fruit of my labours, and 
 appearing like the friend of Paoli. By-the-bye, the Earl of 
 Pembroke and Captain Meadows are just setting out for Corsica, 
 and I have the honour of introducing them by letter to the 
 General. David Hume came on purpose the other day to tell 
 me that the Duke of Bedford was very fond of my book, and 
 had recommended it to the Duchess." 
 
 In the beginning of 1769 Boswell issued under the pub- 
 lishing auspices of Messrs. Dilly, a duodecimo volume entitled 
 " British Essays in favour of the brave Corsicans " — a work 
 which was followed by the third edition of his work on Corsica. 
 In a preface to this edition, dated at Auchinleck, 29th Octo- 
 ber, 1768, he thus disposes of his critics: — "To those who 
 have imagined themselves very witty in sneering at me for 
 being a Christian, I would recommend the serious study of 
 theology ; and I hope they will attain to the same comfort that 
 I have in the belief of a revelation by which a Saviour is 
 proclaimed to the world, and 'life and immortality are clearly 
 brought to light.' " He closes by congratulating himself on 
 having obtained literary reputation. 
 
 " May I be permitted to say," he writes, " that the success 
 of this book has exceeded my warmest hopes. When I first 
 ventured to send it into the world I fairly owned an ardent 
 desire for literary fame. I have obtained my desire; and 
 whatever clouds may overcast my days, I can now walk here 
 among the rocks and woods of my ancestors with an agreeable 
 consciousness that I have done something worthy." 
 
 Complacently as he had expressed himself, Boswell was ill 
 at ease, for though his book sold, and was generally approved. 
 Dr. Johnson remained silent. After endurin" the affront for
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 63 
 
 eighteen months, he at length, in September, 1769, addressed 
 a letter to the lexicographer, charging him with unkinduess. 
 In these terms Dr. Johnson rebutted the accusation: — 
 
 " Why do you charge me with unkindness ? I have omitted 
 nothing that could do you good or give you pleasure, unless 
 it be that I have forborne to tell you my opinion of your 
 'Account of Corsica.' I believe my opinion, if you think 
 well of my judgment, might have given you pleasure; but 
 when it is considered how much vanity is excited by praise, 
 I am not sure that it would have done you good. Your history 
 is like other histories, but your journal is in a very high degree 
 curious and delightful. There is between the history and the 
 journal that difference which there will always be found between 
 notions borrowed from without and notions generated within. 
 Your history was copied from books ; your journal rose out of 
 your own experience and observation. You express images 
 which operated strongly upon yourself, and you have impressed 
 them with great force upon your readers. I know not whether 
 I could name any narrative by which curiosity is better excited 
 or better gratified." 
 
 These words from Dr. Johnson made Boswell happy. The 
 Doctor's opinion as to the interest of the work mainly depending 
 on the narrative of the writer's own experiences was shared 
 generally. Eespecting Boswell and his performance, Mr. 
 Walpole, in a letter to the poet Gray, dated 18th February, 
 1768, thus expresses himself: — "Pray read the new account of 
 Corsica ; what relates to Paoli will amuse you much. There is a 
 deal about the island and its dimensions that one does not care 
 a straw for. The author, Boswell, is a strange being, and, like 
 Cambridge,* has a rage for knowing anybody that was ever talked 
 
 * Richard Owen Cambridge, author of "The Scribleraid" and 
 other works. A gentleman of opulence, he entertained in his villa at 
 Twickenham the literary celebrities of his time. He died in 1802, 
 aged eighty-five.
 
 G4 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 of. He forced himself upon me in spite of my teeth and my 
 doors, and I see has given a foolish account of all he could pick 
 up from me about King Theodore. He then took an antipathy 
 to me on Eousseau's account, abused me in the newspapers, and 
 expected Rousseau to do so too ; but as he came to see ms no 
 more, I forgave all the rest. I see he is now a little sick of 
 Rousseau himself, but I hope it will not cure him of his anger 
 to me ; however, his book will amvise you." 
 
 This is caustic enough. Gray's reply is equally in praise of 
 Bos well's Journal and condemnatory of its author : — * 
 
 " PcmhroJce College, February 25, 1768. 
 " j\Ir. Boswell's book I was going to recommend to you when 
 I received your letter. It has pleased and moved me strangely — 
 all (I mean) that relates to Paoli. . . . The pamphlet 
 proves what I have always maintained, that any fool may write 
 a most valuable book by chance, if he will only tell us ,what he 
 heard and said with veracity. Of Mr. Boswell's truth I have 
 not the least suspicion, because I am sure he could invent 
 nothing of the kind. The title of this part of his work is a 
 dialogue between a Green Goose and a Hero." ^^ 
 
 Inflated with his success as an author, and his supposed popu- 
 larity as the friend of the Corsicans and of Paoli, Boswell, on his 
 return to Edinburgh in the summer of 1768, began to eschew his 
 legal duties and spend his evenings at the gambling-table. To 
 this practice he had been formerly addicted, but he had tempo- 
 rarily renounced it; on the counsel of Mr. Sheridan. In August, 
 
 * In his letters to Mr. Temple of 9th September, 1767, and 14tli 
 May, 17G8, Boswell evinces a particular desire to possess Mr. Gray's 
 opinion of his work, and to obtain his personal acquaintance. It 
 is hoped that he remained uninformed of the poet's sentiments 
 concerning him. 
 
 t "The Works of Thomas Gray. Edited by the Rev. John 
 Mitford." London : 1816, 2 vols., 4to, vol. ii., p. 498.
 
 MEMOm OF JAMES BOSWELL. 65 
 
 1768, he reported to Mr. Temple that " he found the fever still 
 lurking in his veins," and so indulged his propensity. During 
 the previous autumn he had experienced his father's resentment 
 for his encouragement of theatricals and constant talk about 
 Paoli. In reference to his father's displeasure he thus commu- 
 nicated with Mr. Temple in September, 1767 : — 
 
 " How unaccountable is it that my father and I should be so ill 
 together ! He is a man of sense and a man of worth ; but from 
 some unhappy turn in his disposition he is much dissatisfied 
 with a son whom you know, I write to him with warmth, with 
 an honest pride, wishing that he should think of me as I am; 
 but my letters shock him, and every expression in them is 
 interpreted unfavourably. To give you an instance, I send you 
 a letter I had from him a few days ago. How galling is it 
 to the friend of Paoli to be treated so ! I have answered him in 
 my own style. I will be myself . . Temple, would you not 
 like such a son ? would you not feel a glow of parental joy ? I 
 know you would ; and yet my worthy father writes to me in the 
 manner you see, with that Scots strength of sarcasm which is 
 peculiar to a North Briton. But he is offended with that fire 
 which you and I cherish as the essence of our souls ; and how can 
 I make him happy ? Am I bound to do so at the expense, not 
 of this or the other agreeable wish, but at the expense of myself ? 
 The time was when such a letter from my father as the one 
 I enclose would have depressed ; but I am now firm, and as my 
 revered friend Mr. Samuel Johnson used to say, I feel the privi- 
 leges of an independent human being. However, it is hard that 
 I cannot have the pious satisfaction of being well with my 
 father." 
 
 To lose the paternal favour was perilous; so BosweU's next 
 literary performance was of a professional character. When he 
 commenced practice as an advocate, society in Edinburgh 
 and in the country generally was much agitated in con- 
 nection with the Douglas case. The question at issue was 
 
 F
 
 6Q MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 whether Mr. Archibald Douglas was the real heir to the 
 estates of Douglas, the succession otherwise devolving on 
 the Duke of Hamilton. The Lady Jane Douglas was twice 
 married. By her first union, which subsisted for many years 
 she had no children ; she married secondly Mr. Stewart, after- 
 wards Sir John Stewart, Bart., of Grandtully, an aged gentle- 
 man in feeble health, and by this marriage, as was alleged, gave 
 birth to twin sons in her fifty-first year. Lady Jane long 
 resided in France ; her alleged accouchement took place in the 
 house of a Madame le Brun, in Paris, and it was asserted that 
 the children which she claimed as her sons were purchased from a 
 Parisian rope-dancer. The younger of the two boys died in 
 childhood, and on the death of the Duke of Douglas his Grace's 
 estates were claimed by Archibald, the elder son. The validity 
 of his claim was disputed, and the evidence adduced on both 
 sides occupies several quarto volumes. In the Court of Session 
 the claimant's birth was pronounced supposititious, on the casting 
 vote of the Lord President Dundas. On appeal that decision 
 was reversed by the House of Lords, Lord Camden, the Chan- 
 cellor, alleging that " a more ample and positive proof of the 
 child's being the son of a mother never appeared in a court of 
 justice." 
 
 Wliile the Douglas case was exciting its utmost interest, 
 Boswell became a keen supporter of the claimant, Mr. Archibald 
 Douglas; and in November, 1767, produced a pamphlet entitled 
 " The Essence of the Douglas Cause." This brochure was issued 
 in reply to a small publication entitled " Considerations on the 
 Douglas Cause," but failed to excite any general attention. The 
 author, however, cherished the belief that he had been of essen- 
 tial service to ^Ir. Douglas, and accordingly requested that his 
 name might be added to the list of counsel retained on his 
 behalf.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 67 
 
 Boswell, we have seen, had begun to think of matrimony. In 
 that direction liis thoughts were sufficiently persistent, though 
 in respect to the object of affection singularly variable. On the 
 30th March, 1767, he thus addressed Mr. Temple :— 
 
 " What say you to my marrying ? I intend, next autumn, to 
 visit Miss Bosville in Yorkshire ; but I fear, my lot being cast in 
 Scotland, that beauty would not be content. She is, however, 
 grave ; I shall see. There is a young lady in the neighbourhood 
 here who has an estate of her own between two and three 
 hundred a year, just eighteen, a genteel person, an agreeable face, 
 of a good family, sensible, good-tempered, cheerful, pious. You 
 know my grand object is the ancient family of Auchinleck — a 
 venerable and noble principle. How would it do to conclude an 
 alliance with the neighbouring princess, and add her lands to 
 our dominions ? I should at once have a very pretty little 
 estate, a good house, and a sweet place. My father is very fond 
 of her : it would make him perfectly happy : he gives me hints 
 in this way : — ' I wish you had her,' — ' No bad scheme this ; I 
 think it a very good one.' But I will not be in a hurry ; there 
 is plenty of time." 
 
 Writing to Mr. Temple on the 12th June, Boswell omits all 
 reference to Miss Bosville, but extols " the young lady in his 
 neighbourhood " as a kind of goddess. 
 
 " The lady in my neighbourhood," he writes, " is the finest 
 woman I have ever seen. I went and visited her, and she was 
 so good as to prevail with her mother to come to Auchinleck, 
 where they stayed four days, and in our romantic groves I 
 adored her like a divinity. I have already given you her cha- 
 racter. My father is very desirous I should marry her ; all 
 my relations, all my neighbours, approve of it. She looked 
 quite at home in the house of Auchinleck. Her picture would 
 be an ornament to the gallery. Her children would be all 
 Boswells and Temples, and as fine women as these are excellent 
 men. And now my friend, my best adviser, comes to hear me 
 talk of her and to fix my wavering mind."
 
 68 MEMOIR OF JAJIES BOSWELL. 
 
 In his next letter to j\Ir. Temple, Boswell reveals that his 
 " angelic princess " is " Miss Blair, of Adamtown," adding that 
 on the preceding Tuesday he had got inebriated in drinking her 
 health, and in that condition had committed miserable follies. 
 He proceeds : — 
 
 " You must resolve to visit my goddess. You are a stranger, 
 and may do a romantic thing. You shall have consultation 
 guineas, as an ambassador has his appointments. You see how 
 I use you. In short, between us two, all rules and all maxims 
 are suspended. Pray prepare yourself for this adventure ; we 
 shall settle it, I hope ; I cannot go with you, though. You are 
 to see our country for a jaunt upon my recommendation." 
 
 Boswell was practical for once. In assuring his reverend 
 friend that he would have his " consultation guineas " he meant 
 that his travelling costs would be defrayed should he consent to 
 visit Ayrshire, and recommend him to Miss Blair. The proposal 
 was acceded to. Mr. Temple agreed to proceed on his mission 
 at once on beincj furnished with the needful instructions. Before 
 the end of July he was in Scotland, provided with an itinerary, 
 from which we extract the following :— 
 
 " Wednesday. — Thomas * wiU bring you to Adamtown a little 
 after eleven. Send up your name ; if possible, put up your 
 horses there, they can have cut grass ; if not, Thomas will take 
 them to Mountain, a place a mile off, and come bac'k and wait 
 at dinner. Give Miss Blair my letter. Salute her and her 
 mother; ask to walk. See the place fully; think what improve- 
 ments should be made. Talk of my mare, the purse, the choco- 
 late. Tell them you are my very old and intimate friend. Praise 
 me for my good qualities, you know them ; but talk also how 
 odd, how inconstant, how impetuous, how much accustomed to 
 women of intrigue. Ask gravely, ' Pray don't you imagine there 
 is something of madness in that family ? ' Talk of my various 
 travels, German princes, Voltaire and Piousseau. Talk of my 
 
 * Boswell's servant.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 69 
 
 father, my strong desire to have my own house. Observe her 
 well. See how amiable ! Judge if she would be happy with 
 your friend. Think of me as the great man at Adamtown — 
 quite classical, too! Study the mother. Eemember well what 
 passes. Stay tea. At six order horses and go to New Mills, 
 two miles from Loudoun ; but if they press you stay all night, 
 do it. Be a man of as much ease as possible. Consider what a 
 romantic expedition you are on ; take notes ; perhaps you now 
 fix me for life." 
 
 Instructions more extraordinary were never before delivered 
 by lovesick swain to the friend of his suit. That friend was 
 to inform the lady of his afi'ections that he was " much accus- 
 tomed to women of intrigue ; " that he was " odd," " inconstant," 
 and " impetuous ; " and he was even to hint that there was 
 madness in his family. That Boswell should have brought his 
 friend 500 miles so to describe him to the lady of his affec- 
 tions is not the least remarkable feature of his strange career. 
 Mr. Temple, it is hoped, was more discreet than his client. 
 
 On his return to l^amhead Mr. Temple married a gentle- 
 woman who brought him a fortune of £1,300. Boswell wrote 
 to Miss Blair, thanking her for her attention to his friend, but 
 the lady was silent. Her suitor became perplexed ; he feared 
 that a certain nabob had " struck in," or that Temple " had told 
 her his faults too honestly." At length, after he had endured 
 the miseries of " a feverish disorder, the lady relented, and sent 
 him a most agreeable letter." She made an excuse that a 
 letter of his had been delayed at the Ayr post office ; but he 
 had wT-itten several. On the 28th August he again com- 
 municates with Mr. Temple. He assumes the designation of 
 a sovereign prmce, and holds the clergyman as his ambassador. 
 
 " Are you not happy," he writes, " to find that all is well 
 between the Prince of Auchinleck and his fair neighbouring 
 princess ? In short, sir, I am one of the most fortunate men
 
 70 . MEMOIR OF JAMES BOS^^^:LL, 
 
 in the world. As Miss Blair is my great object at present, 
 and you are a principal minister in forwarding the alliance, I 
 enclose you the latest papers on the subject. You will find 
 the letter I wrote her when ill, where you will see a Scots 
 word roving, from the French ri,ve,r, as if to dream awake. 
 I put it down as a good English word, not having looked in 
 Johnson. You will next find the lady's answer, then a long 
 letter from me, which required an extraordinary degree of good 
 sense and temper to answer it with an agreeable propriety ; 
 then her answer, which exceeds my highest expectations. 
 Lead these papers in their order, and let me have your 
 excellency's opinion. Am I not now as well as I can 
 be ? What condescension ! what a desire to please ! She 
 studies my disposition, and resolves to be cautious, &c. Ador- 
 able woman! Don't you think I had better not write again 
 tQl I see her ? 1 shall go west in a fortnight, but I can hardly 
 restrain myself from writing to her in transport. I will go to 
 Adamtown and stay a week. I will have no disguise ; we 
 shall see each other fairly, We are both independent ; we have 
 no temptation to marry but to make each other happy. Let 
 us be sure if that would be the consequence." 
 
 On the 5th of November Boswell writes to Mr. Temple 
 from Adamtown : — 
 
 "My dear Temple, — The pleasure of your countenance in 
 reading the date of this letter is before me at this moment. . . 
 In short, I am sitting in the room with my princess, who is at 
 this moment a finer woman than ever she appeared to me before. 
 But, my valuable friend, be not too certain of your Boswell's 
 felicity, for indeed he has little of it at present. . . . For ten 
 days I was in a fever, but at last I broke the enchantment. 
 However, I could not be too sullen in my pride ; I wrote to 
 her from Auchinleck, and wished her joy, &c. ; she answered 
 me, with the same ease as ever, that I had no occasion. I 
 then wrote her a strange sultanish letter, very cold and very 
 formal, and did not go to see her for near three weeks. . . . 
 
 " But the princess and I have not yet made up our quarrel ;
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 71 
 
 she talks lightly of it. I am resolved to have a serious conver- 
 sation with her to-morrow morning. If she can still remain 
 indifferent as to what has given me much pain, she is not the 
 woman I thought her, and from to-morrow morning shall I be 
 severed from her as a lover. I shall just bring myself, I hope, 
 to a good easy tranquillity. If she feels as I wish her to do, I 
 shall adore her while my blood is warm." 
 
 After an interval of three days Boswell again communicated 
 with Mr. Temple :— 
 
 "Auchinhch, Sunday, Sth Novemher, 1767. 
 
 " I wrote you from Adamtown, and told you how it was with 
 the princess and me. Next morning I told her that I had com- 
 plained to you that she would not make up our last quarrel, 
 but she did not appear in the least inclined to own herself in 
 the wrong. I confess that, between pride and love, I was unable 
 to speak to her but in a very awkward manner. I came home 
 on Friday ; yesterday I was extremely uneasy. That I might 
 give her a fair opportunity, I sent her a letter, of which I enclose 
 you a copy. Could the proud Boswell say more than you will 
 see there ? In the evening I got her answer ; it was written 
 with an art and indifference astonishing from so young a lady : — 
 ' I have not yet found out that I was to blame. If you have 
 been uneasy on my account, I am indeed sorry for it ; I should 
 be sorry to give any person uneasiness, far more one whose 
 cousin and friend I shall always be.' . . . 
 
 " In short, Temple, she is cunning, and sees my weakness. 
 But I now see her ; and though I cannot but suffer severely, I 
 from this moment resolve to think no more of her. I send you 
 the copy of a note which goes to her to-morrow morning. Wish 
 me joy, my good friend, of having discovered the snake before 
 too late. I should have been ruined had I made such a woman 
 my wife. Luckily for me, a neighbour who came to Auchinleck 
 last night told me that he had heard three people at Ayr agree 
 in abusing her as a jilt. What a risk have I run ! However, 
 as there is still a possibility that all this may be mistake and 
 malice, I shall behave to her in a very respectful manner, and
 
 72 MEMOIK OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 shall never say a word against her but to you. After this I shall 
 be upon my guard against ever indulging the least fondness for 
 a Scotch lass. I am a soul of a more southern frame. I may, 
 perhaps, be fortunate enough to find an Englishwoman who 
 will be sensible of my merit, and will study to please my 
 singular humour." 
 
 Subsequent letters from Boswell to Mr. Temple contain these 
 passages: — "Upon my soul, the madness of which I have a strong 
 decree in my composition is at present so heightened by love 
 that I am absolutely deprived of judgment. . . . One great 
 fault of mine is talking at random ; I will guard against it." 
 Eeferring to the object of his hopes at Adamtown, he vvrites : — 
 "I will consecrate myself to her for ever. I must have her 
 to learn the harpsichord and French ; she shall be one of the 
 first women in the island." " Temple, I ventured to seize her 
 hand. She is really the finest woman to me I ever saw." 
 
 To ]\Ir. Temple, on the 24th December, he wrote thus : — 
 
 " In my last I told you that after I had resolved to give up 
 with the Princess for ever, I resolved first to see her. I was 
 so lucky as to have a very agreeable interview, and was con- 
 vinced by her that she was not to blame. This happened on a 
 Thursday j that evening her cousin and most intimate friend, the 
 Duchess of Gordon, came to town. Next day I was at the con- 
 cert with them, and afterwards supped at Lord Kames's. The 
 Princess appeared distant and reserved. I could hardly believe 
 that it was the same woman with whom I had been quite gay 
 the day before ; I was then uneasy. Next evening I was at the 
 play with them : it was ' Othello.' I sat close behind the Princess, 
 and at the most affecting scenes I pressed my hand upon her 
 waist ; she was in tears, and rather leaned to me. The jealous 
 Moor described my very soul." 
 
 Boswell subjoins a dialogue between " the Princess " and him- 
 self. " You are very fond of Auchinleck," said Boswell in his 
 pleading. " I confess I am," responded the lady ; " I wish I
 
 MEMOm OF JAMES BOSWELL. 73 
 
 liked you as well as I do Aucliinleck." There had been 
 repeated meetings and lengthy conversations, but Boswell covild 
 not extract a promise, and knew not what to think. He begs 
 that Mr. Temple will consult with his wife, and thereupon 
 advise him. Towards the close of his letter he writes, " Amidst 
 all this love I have been wild as ever. . , . To-morrow I 
 shall be happy with my devotions. . . . Could you assist 
 me to keep up my real dignity among the illiterate race of Scots 
 lawyers ? " 
 
 To Mr. Temple he writes from Edinburgh, on the 8th February, 
 1768:— 
 
 " All is over between Miss Blair and me. I have delayed 
 writing till I could give you some final account. About a fort- 
 night after she went to the country a report went that she was 
 going to be married to Sir Alexander Gilmour, INIember of 
 Parliament for Mid-Lothian, a young man about thirty, who 
 has £1,600 a year of estate, was formerly an officer in the 
 Guards, and is now one of the clerks of the Board of Green 
 Cloth, a thousand a year — in short, a noble match, though a 
 man of expense, and obliged to lead a London life. After the 
 fair agreement between her and me, which I gave you in my 
 last, I had a title to know the truth. I wrote to her seriously, 
 and told her if she did not write me an answer I should believe 
 the report to be true. After three days I concluded from her 
 silence that she was at least engaged. I endeavoured to laugli 
 off my passion, and I got Sir Alexander Gilmour to frank a letter 
 to her, which I wrote in a pleasant strain, and amused myself 
 with the whim ; still, however, I was not absolutely certain, as 
 her conduct has been so prudent all along." 
 
 To ask a gentleman to frank a letter for him addressed to a 
 young lady of whom they were rival lovers was an act of eccen- 
 tricity befitting Boswell only. In the letter above quoted he 
 proceeds to inform Mr. Temple that the heiress having come to 
 town, he began to apprehend that her affections were engaged
 
 74 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 by a ;Mr. Fullerton, whom he describes as his " old rival, the 
 nabob." So he procured the nabob's acquaintance, and they 
 called on the heiress together. She received them courteously, 
 but with greater than wonted reserve. Boswell was determined 
 to know the worst. He entertained Mr. Fullerton to supper at 
 the house of a relative, and the same evening took him to a 
 tavern and warmed him " with old claret." As anticipated, Mr. 
 Fullerton became very communicative, admitting that he had 
 been assiduous in attending Miss Blair, but had received no 
 suitable encouragement. He and Boswell remained together 
 long after midnight, and before separating agreed that each on 
 the morrow should visit the heiress, and make proposals to her. 
 Boswell made sure to reach first, as he went to breakfast ; he 
 proposed, and was refused. The nabob called on Miss Blair an 
 hour or two afterwards, and was overpowered with her coldness. 
 
 " Now that all is over," Boswell sums up, " I see many faults 
 in her wliich I did not see before. ... I am, however, 
 resolved to look out for a good wife either here or in England. 
 . . . The heiress is a good Scots lass, but I must have an 
 Englishwoman. You cannot say how fine a woman I may 
 marry. Perhaps a Howard, or some other of the noblest in the 
 kingdom." 
 
 Finally, to assure his correspondent that he was not dis- 
 tracted by rejection or disappointed hope, he embodied in his 
 communication the following somewhat splenetic verses at 
 the expense of the " princess : " — 
 
 " Although I be an honest laird, 
 
 In person rather strong and brawny, 
 For me the heiress never cared, 
 
 For she would have the knight Sir Sawney.* 
 
 * Sir Alexander Gilmour, liart., of Craigrailler, M.P., Boswell's 
 supposed rival in the affections of Miss Blair, died unmarried in 
 France, on the 27th December, 1792.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 75 
 
 " And when with ardent vows I swore, 
 Loud as Sir Jonathan Trelawney, 
 The heiress showed me to the door, 
 
 And said she'd have the knight Sir Sawney. 
 
 " She told me, with a scornful look, 
 I was as ugly as a tawny ; 
 For she a better fish could hook, 
 
 The rich and gallant knight Sir Sawney." 
 
 In his next letter to Mr. Temple, dated London, 24th March, 
 Bos well expresses his joy that be is rid of Miss Blair, and 
 informs him that he and " a charming Dutchwoman " have 
 renewed correspondence. Under the name of Zelide she is fre- 
 quently mentioned in his previous letters ; he had formed her 
 acquaintance at Utrecht. Zelide is commended as fair, lively, 
 sensible, and accomplished ; and is so deeply attached to the 
 writer that be feels be cannot be unhappy with her. By having 
 translated into French his work on Corsica she has shown a just 
 appreciationof bis literary tastes. 
 
 Contrary to bis usual habit, Boswell on this occasion consulted 
 both bis father and bis friend. Zelide, be said, was " willing 
 to meet bim without any engagement ; " but bis counsellors 
 were unwilling that any meeting should be held. Writing to 
 Mr. Temj)le on the 16tb April be admits that Zelide bad faults, 
 but time, be thinks, may have altered her for the better, as it bad 
 in some measure altered himself. However, bs was willing, in 
 deference to bis advisers, to renounce Zelide. In a postscript be 
 asks Mr. Temple's opinion of Miss Dick,* " with whom be dined 
 agreeably." He describes her as "fine, healthy, young, and 
 amiable," though lacking " a good fortune." He acknowledges 
 
 * Miss Dick was eldest of the three daughters of Sir Alexander 
 Dick, Bart., of Prestonfield. Mr. Temple met her during his visit to 
 Scotland on the Adamtown expedition.
 
 76 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 that he had many wanton passions, " and had lately been wild 
 as ever." He is much disappointed that his correspondent, to 
 whom he had pre\'iously offered a visit, had no spare bed : he 
 will visit him after all, and " they will sit up all night together." 
 
 On the 26th April he informs Mr. Temple that Zelide is not 
 yet given up. He had received a letter from her, " full of good 
 sense and tenderness," and he had asked his father to allow him 
 to visit her at Utrecht. " How do we know," he proceeds, " but 
 she is an inestimable prize ? Surely it is worth while to go to 
 Holland to see a fair conclusion, one way or other, of what has 
 hovered in my mind for years. I have A\Titten to her and told 
 her all my perplexity ; I have put in the plainest light what 
 conduct I actually require of her, and what my father will 
 require. I have bid her be my wife at present, and comfort me 
 with a letter, in which she shall show at once her wisdom, her 
 spirit, and her regard for me. You shall see it. I tell you, 
 man, she knows me and values me as you do." Boswell adds 
 that he has been suffering from a distemper induced by social 
 indulgence, and vows that he " shall never again behave in a 
 manner so unworthy the friend of Paoli." 
 
 Disappointment still ruled. In a letter, dated 14tli IMay, 
 Boswell informs Mr. Temple that he had received a letter from 
 Zelide. Most gently had he referred to her " levity and infidel 
 notions," and she had proved a " termagant and scorched him." 
 He had assured his father that Mademoiselle would not suit 
 liim as a wife ; she, however, might be " a good correspondent." 
 
 Unaccepted as a lover, Zelide declined becoming a correspond- 
 ent ; she was soon forgotten. l\Ir. Temple was opposed to Miss 
 Dick, and Boswell, though he disapproved his friend's opinion, 
 began to look elsewhere. After two months,* he writes to Mam- 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Temple, written from Auchinleck, 24th August. 
 17G8.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 77 
 
 head, that he had found another mistress — a certain Mary Anne, 
 an Irish beauty. He congratuLates himself on having escaped 
 "the insensible Miss B. and the furious Zelide," and "rejoices in 
 the finest creature that ever was formed, la helle Irlandaise." 
 " Imagme to yourself, Temple," he adds, " a young lady just six- 
 teen, formed like a Grecian nymph, with the sweetest counte- 
 nance, full of sensibility, accomplished, with a Dublin education, 
 always half the year in the north of Ireland, her father a coun- 
 cillor-at-law, with the estate of £1,000 a year, and above £10,000 
 in ready money ; her mother a sensible, well-bred woman ; she 
 the darling of her parents, and no other cliild but her sister." 
 He adds, " Upon my honour I never was so much in love ; I 
 never was before in a situation to which there was not some 
 objection, but here every flower is united, and not a thorn to be 
 found. . . . What a fortunate fellow am I ! What a variety 
 of adventures in all countries ! I was allowed to walk a great 
 
 deal with Miss ; I repeated my fervent passion to her 
 
 again and again ; she was pleased, and I could swear that her 
 little heart beat. I carved the first letter of her name on a tree ; 
 I cut off a lock of her hair, male pertinax. She promised not to 
 forget me, nor to marry a lord before March. . . . This is 
 the most agreeable passion I ever felt ; sixteen, innocence, and 
 gaiety make me quite a Sicilian swain. Before I left London I 
 made a vow in St. Paul's church that I would not allow myself 
 . . . for six months. I am hitherto firm to my vow, and 
 already feel myself a superior being. ... In short, Maria 
 has me without any rival." 
 
 Amidst these vows and assurances of amendment, BosweU 
 acknowledges that he had during the last two months "em- 
 ployed a great deal of time in gaming," and haxl thereby 
 wasted his means. Within three months he has forgotten 
 Mary Anne, is again a visitor at Adamtown, and on his knees
 
 78 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 before Miss Blair. That lady is provokiiigly curt, and Boswell 
 is assured by her mother that he had made such a joke of his 
 love for her in every company that she was piqued.* After 
 "this relapse of fever" has continued a few weeks he bids a 
 second adieu to Adamtown, and determines to renew his 
 addresses to Mary Anne. "Then," he writes, "came a kind 
 letter from my amiable aunt Boyd in Ireland, and all the charms 
 of sweet Mary Anne revived. Since that time I have been quite 
 constant to her, and as indifferent towards Kate as if I never 
 had thought of her. . . . After her behaviour, do I, the 
 candid, generous Boswell, owe her anything? Am I anyhow 
 bound by passionate inclinations to which she did not even 
 answer ? Write to me, my dear friend. She will be here soon. 
 I am quite easy with her. What should I do ? By all that's 
 enchanting I go to Ireland in March ! " 
 
 To the letter just quoted Boswell adds two postscripts. In 
 the first he intimates that he is " a good deal in debt." In the 
 second, he remarks, " INIy present misfortune is occasioned by 
 drinking. Since my return to Scotland I have fallen a great 
 deal too mideh into that habit, which still prevails in Scotland. 
 Perhaps the coldness of the Scots requires it, but my young 
 blood is llurned to madness by it. This will be a warning to 
 me, and f^om henceforth I shall be a perfect man ; at least, I 
 hope so." Confessions which close the letter strongly proved 
 that the writer's aspirations after perfection were altogether 
 illusory. 
 
 In INIay, 1769, Boswell fulfilled his intention of visiting 
 Ireland. Through the influence of Mr. Sibthorpe, a landowner 
 in the county of Down, husband of one of his cousins, he was 
 introduced into elegant and lettered society. At Dublin he 
 
 * Letter from Boswell to Mr. Temple, dated Edinburgh, 9th 
 December, 17G8.
 
 MEMOm OF JAMES BOSWELL. 79 
 
 dined with Lord Chaiiemont, and met such literary celebrities as 
 Dr. Leland, Mr. Flood, Dr. Macbride, and George Falconer, the 
 friend of Swift and Chesteriield. More conspicuous hospitalities 
 which attended him at Dublin he deemed worthy of a place in 
 a reputed organ of fashionable intelligence. At his request the 
 Pithlic Advertiser informed its readers on the 7th of July that 
 "James Boswell, Esq., having now visited Ireland, he dined with 
 his Grace the Duke of Leinster at his seat at Carton : he went 
 also by special invitation to meet the Lord Lieutenant at his 
 country seat at Leixlip, to which he was conducted, in one of 
 his Excellency's coaches, by Lieut.-Colonel Walshe. He dined 
 there and stayed all night, and next morning came in the coach 
 with his Excellency to the Phoenix Park, and was present at a 
 review of Sir Joseph Yorke's dragoons. He also dined with the ■ 
 Eight Honourable the Lord Mayor. He is now set out on his 
 return to Scotland," In Ireland he remained six weeks, chiefly 
 occupied in prosecuting his suit. But the " charming Mary Anne " 
 would only laugh at his protestations. In deepest mortification 
 he complained to his cousin Margaret Montgomerie, who had 
 accompanied him to Ireland. She offered her sympathy, and 
 BosweU in gratitude tendered his hand. It was accepted 
 cordially. Miss Montgomerie was not rich, but she possessed 
 largely what her lover entirely lacked — discretion and common 
 sense. Her pedigree justified her union with the heir of 
 Auchinleck. Paternally she was related to the noble house of 
 Eglinton, and her father, Mr. David Montgomerie, of Lainshaw, 
 claimed the dormant peerage of Lyle. To Lord Auchiuleck 
 the proposed union gave entire satisfaction. 
 
 The solemnization of the marriage was deferred tU] autumn. 
 Meanwhile Boswell resolved to pay another visit to the metro- 
 polis. Misfortune had attended Paoli. With the sum of £700, 
 which he raised by subscription, Boswell, in August, 1768,
 
 80 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 shipped for Corsica a quantity of cannon from tlie Carron Iron- 
 M'orks.* Whether the artillery reached its destination, and to 
 what extent it proved useful, has not been related. Unable to 
 overcome Paoli, the Genoese transferred Corsica to the French, 
 who accepting the gift, despatched an army under the Marshal de 
 Vaux to take possession. The inhabitants fought bravely, but 
 were overwhelmed by numbers. Paoli embarked on the 16th 
 June, 1769, in an English vessel bound for Leghorn. Crossing 
 the Continent he repaired to London, where he was hailed with 
 the honours due to his patriotism. Boswell hastened from Scot- 
 land to offer his respects. Paoli received him warmly. 
 
 On the 6th September a national jubilee at Stratford-on-Avon 
 celebrated the memory of Shakspere. AVriting on this subject 
 to the Scots Magazine of the same month, Boswell, while generally 
 commending the proceedings, expressed regret that the demon- 
 stration commenced with an oratorio. " I could have wished," 
 he wrote, " that prayers had been read, and a short sermon 
 preached; it would have consecrated our jubilee to begin it 
 with devotion — with gratefully adoring the Supreme Father of 
 all spirits, from whom cometh every good and perfect gift." In 
 strange contrast with these devotional sentiments was Boswell's 
 own procedure at the jubilee. He took the part of a buffoon, in 
 supposed tribute to patriotism. Eejoicing in his achievement, 
 he published an account of his appearance in the London 
 Magazine for September, accompanied with his portrait. His 
 narrative proceeds thus : — 
 
 " One of the most remarkable masks upon this occasion was 
 
 * " The Carron Company has furnished me them very cheap ; there 
 are two 32-pounders, four 24's, four 18's, and twenty 9-pounders, 
 witli one hundred and fifty ball to each. It is really a tolerable train 
 of artillery." (Letter from Boswell to Mr. Temple, dated 24th August, 
 17G8.)
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 81 
 
 James Boswell, Esq., in the dress of an armed Corsican chief. 
 He entered tlie amphitheatre about twelve o'clock. He wore a 
 short dark-coloured coat of coarse cloth, scarlet waistcoat and 
 breeches, and black spatter-dashes; his cap or bonnet was of 
 black cloth ; on the front of it was embroidered in gold letters, 
 " Viva la Liberta" and on one side of it was a handsome blue 
 feather and cockade, so that it had an elegant as well as a warlike 
 appearance. On the breast of his coat was sewed a Moor's 
 head, the crest of Corsica, surrounded with branches of laurel. 
 He had also a cartridge pouch into which was stuck a stiletto, 
 and on his left side a pistol was hung upon the belt of his 
 cartridge pouch. He had a fusee slung across his shoulder, 
 wore no powder in his hair, but had it plaited at full length 
 with a knot of blue ribbons at the end of it. He had, by way 
 of staff, a very curious vine all of one piece, with a bird finely 
 carved upon it emblematical of the sweet bard of Avon. He 
 wore no mask, saying that it was not proper for a gallant 
 Corsican. So soon as he came into the room he drew universal 
 attention. The novelty of the Corsican dress, its becoming 
 appearance, and the character of that brave nation concurred to 
 distinguish the armed Corsican chief. He was first accosted by 
 Mrs. Garrick, with whom he had a good deal of conversation. 
 Mr. Boswell danced both a minuet and a country dance with a 
 very pretty Irish lady, Mrs, Sheldon, wife to Captain Sheldon, of 
 the 38th Eegiment of Foot, who was dressed in a genteel 
 domino, and before she danced threw off her mask." 
 
 In honour of Corsica, Boswell read to the assemblage at 
 Stratford a poem which he published the same month in the 
 Scots Magazine. These are the concluding lines : — 
 
 " Let me plead for liberty distressed. 
 And Avarm for her each sympathetic breast ; 
 Amidst the splendid honours which you bear, 
 To save a sister island be your care ; 
 With generous ardour make us also free, 
 And give to Corsica a noble jubilee." 
 G
 
 82 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 On his return from Stratford, Dr. Johnson, in a letter dated 
 9th September, congratulated him on his approaching marriage. 
 He wrote thus : — 
 
 " I am glad that you are going to be married, and as I wish 
 you well in things of less importance, wish you well with pro- 
 portionate ardour in this crisis of your life. What I can con- 
 tribute to your happiness I should be very unwilling to with- 
 hold, for I have always loved and valued you, and shall love you 
 and value you still more as you become more regular and useful, 
 effects which a happy marriage will hardly fail to produce." 
 
 Boswell was married to Miss Margaret Montgomerie, at 
 Lainshaw, in i^yrshire, on the 25th November, 1769. On the 
 same day his father entered on matrimony a second time, by 
 espousing his cousin Elizabeth, daughter of Eobert Boswell of 
 Balmuto, and sister of Claude James Boswell, advocate, after- 
 wards Lord Balmuto. This event, which Boswell did not 
 anticipate, considerably modified his nuptial rejoicings, Bosv/ell 
 was afterwards reconciled ; his father's wife proved kindly and 
 generous, and she did not, by " multiplying," add to the family 
 burdens. 
 
 In congratulating Boswell on his new condition Mr. Temple 
 could not refer rejoicingly to his own matrimonial experiences. 
 Mrs. Temple had not proved agreeable to her husband or pleasing 
 to her neighbours. The occupancy of separate apartments did 
 not rescue Mr. Temple from domestic disquietude, and he became 
 desirous of abandoning his living of £80 a year for the humble 
 station of a colonial chaplain.* In the hope of obtaining such 
 an appointmei^t by the influence of friends in the north, he 
 proposed a visit to Boswell in the summer of 1770, Boswell 
 
 • See Correspon(i^iice between the Rev. N. Nicholls and tlie poet 
 Gray, passim. \
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 83 
 
 adduced certain family prospects as a reason why the visit 
 should be postponed. 
 
 About the end of August Mrs. Boswell gave birth to a son, 
 who, much to the grief of both parents, survived only a few 
 hours. Boswell sought comfort from his friend Mr. Temple, and 
 expressed a hope that the visit he had announced he would 
 fulfil soon. In a letter to Mr. Temple, dated Gth September, 
 he wrote, — 
 
 " Send your portmanteau on Monday, directed for me at my 
 house in Chessel's Buildings, Canongate, and ride you over when- 
 ever you please. Give me all the time you can. My wife will 
 be in her drawing-room next week, if it pleases God to continue 
 to favour her. My dear friend, how happy will it make me to 
 have you under my roof, and enjoy with you some invaluable 
 hours of elegant friendship and classical sociality ! " 
 
 Mr. Temple remained at Chessel's Buildings several days. 
 Though a persistent water-drinker, his visit was much enjoyed 
 by his host. To a letter afterwards received from him Boswell 
 replied thus : — 
 
 " Edinhurgh, 6ih October, 1770. 
 
 "I rejoice that you got so well to Gainslaw. I was afraid 
 you might find the journey very fatiguing ; but you water- 
 drinkers are Herculean fellows. I believe it would be better 
 for me were I to adopt your system ; but this is only en passa7U. 
 It is a bill which would meet with a good deal of opposition in 
 my lower house. How agreeable is it to me to find that my old 
 and most intimate friend was so happy in my house ! We must 
 really contrive it so as to pass a good part of our time together. 
 I never wiU rest till you have a living in the north, I hope in 
 Northumberland or Cumberland. 
 
 " You cannot say too much to me of my wife. How dare you 
 quote to me sua si hona norint ? I am fully sensible of my hap- 
 piness in being married to so excellent a woman, so sensible a
 
 84 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 mistress of a family, so agi'eeable a companion, so affectionate 
 and peculiarly proper helpmate for me. I own I am not so much 
 on my guard against fits of passion or gloom as I ought to be ; 
 but tliat is really owing to her great goodness. There is some- 
 thing childish in it, I confess. I ought not to indulge in such fits ; 
 it is like a child that lets itself fall purposely, to have the pleasure 
 of being tenderly raised up again by those who are fond of it. I 
 shall endeavour to be better. Upon the whole I do believe I 
 shall make her happy. God bless and preserve her ! " 
 
 For eighteen months subsequent to his marriage Boswell 
 applied himself with unwonted steadiness to literary study, and 
 the systematic practice of his profession. If he corresponded 
 regularly v.'ith Mr. Temple during this period few of his letters 
 have been preserved, and he has recorded in his Life of Johnson 
 that he and the lexicographer resumed, in June, 1771, a corre- 
 spondence which had for a year and a half been intermitted. To 
 a letter from Boswell, soliciting a renewal of epistolary inter- 
 course, Dr. Johnson wrote as follows : — 
 
 "London, Jane 20th, 1771. 
 " I never was so much pleased as now with your account of 
 yourself; and sincerely hope that, between public business, 
 improving studies, and domestic pleasures, neither melancholy 
 nor caprice will find any place for entrance. Whatever philo- 
 sophy may determine of material nature, it is certainly true of 
 intellectual nature that it abhors a vacuum. Our minds cannot 
 be empty, and •evil will break in upon them if they are not pre- 
 occupied by good. My dear sir, mind your studies, mind your 
 business, make your lady happy, and be a good Christian. After 
 this, — 
 
 ' Tristitiam ct nietiis, 
 Trades protervis in mare Creticum 
 Portare ventia.' 
 
 " If we perform our duty we shall be safe and steady, ' sive per,' 
 &c., whether we climb the Highlands or are tost among the
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 85 
 
 Hebrides ; and I hope the time will come when we may tiy our 
 
 powers both with cliffs and water." 
 
 Dr. Johnson's letter contains the first published reference to 
 the proposed journey to the Hebrides. In March, 1772, Bos- 
 well revisited London. He was retained as counsel in a case 
 appealed to the House of Lords by one Hastie, a schoolmaster, 
 who had been deprived of office for the cruel treatment of his 
 pupils. That he might on this occasion properly acquit him- 
 self, he sought and obtained the aid of Dr. Johnson. During his 
 visit he met Johnson frequently, and, with the intention of 
 becoming his biographer, carefully recorded his conversations. 
 He returned to Edinburgh in May. 
 
 Ee visiting London in the spring of 1773, Bos well was for the 
 first time invited to dinner at Dr. Johnson's private residence. 
 He was, on Dr. Johnson's motion, admitted a member of the 
 Literary Club. He had become known to Sir Joshua Eeynolds, 
 Dr. Goldsmith, and Mr. Garrick; he occasionally dined with 
 General Oglethorpe, and continued on friendly terms with Paoli. 
 He was a favourite with Mr. Thrale, and frequently enjoyed his 
 hospitality. He returned to Edinburgh in May, and soon after- 
 wards Mrs. Boswell presented him with a daughter. He named 
 the child Veronica, in honour of his great-grandmother, the 
 Countess of Kincardine, a descendant of the Dutch family of 
 Somnelsdyck. 
 
 Dr. Johnson had talked of the proposed Hebridean journey 
 more definitely. That his purpose might not waver, Boswell 
 entreated some leading Scotsmen to send him letters of invita- 
 tion and encouragement. Among those who responded by offers 
 of hospitality were the chiefs Macdonald and Macleod, Principal 
 Eobertson, and Dr. Beattie. Johnson was much gratified, and 
 fully determined to proceed to Scotland before the close of tlie 
 summer. He left London early in August, in a post-chaise,
 
 86 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 along with Mr. Justice afterwards Sir Robert Chambers. The 
 latter tarried at Newcastle, and Johnson was accompanied 
 from thence to Edinburgh by Mr. Scott, afterwards Lord Stowell. 
 From Newcastle he wrote to Boswell, on Wednesday, the 11th 
 August, that he hoped to reach Edinburgh on the following 
 Saturday. On the evening of that day he arrived at Boyd's 
 Inn, Canongate, better known as the " White Horse." A note 
 announcing his arrival brought Boswell at once. They embraced 
 cordially, and Boswell led him up High Street to his house in 
 James's Court. 
 
 To that house Boswell had removed lately from Chessel's 
 Buildings. James's Court was entered from the Lawn Market 
 by a low gateway. The court was quadrilateral, and opposite the 
 entrance were two common stairs. Boswell occupied the dwell- 
 ing reached by the western staircase, at the height of three 
 storeys, his door being that at the top of the landing. The 
 house was formerly occupied by David Hume, who here com- 
 posed a portion of his history, and entertained Boswell when a 
 youth. Dr. Hugh Blair had also occupied the dwelling. 
 
 Boswell having notified the amval, his distinguished guest 
 was, while he remained in Edinburgh, feted at every meal. 
 Among those invited by Boswell to meet him were such 
 titled persons as the Duchess of Douglas, Lord Chief Baron 
 Orde, Lord Hniles, Sir William Forbes, Bart., of Pitsligo, Sir 
 Adolphus Oughton, and Sir Alexander Dick, Bart., of Preston- 
 field. Of those Icnown in literature similarly privileged were 
 Dr. William Robertson, Dr. Blair, Professor Adam Fergusson, 
 Dr. Gregory, Dr. Alexander Webster, and Dr. Blacklock. It was an 
 epocli in Boswell's life, and he was proportionately elated. In 
 his " Tour," published fifteen years afterwards, he in reference 
 to this period of his history presents of himself the following 
 portraiture : —
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 87 
 
 " Think," he writes, " of a gentleman of ancient blood, the 
 pride of which was his predominant passion. He was tlien in his 
 thirty-third year, and had been about four years happily married. 
 His 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 human life ; 
 he had thought more than anybody had supposed, and had a 
 pretty good stock of general learning and knowledge ; he had all 
 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 sometimes — 
 
 ' The best good man with the worst-natured muse.' " 
 
 He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the enco- 
 mium of Dr. Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the friend of 
 his tour represents him as one " whose acuteness would help 
 my inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility of 
 manners are sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel 
 in countries less hospitable than we have passed." 
 
 It was arranged that Boswell should accompany the lexico- 
 grapher throughout the northern journey ; and he made ofi'er 
 to attend to all business concerns, including those of finance. 
 The travellers left Edinburgh on Wednesday, the 18th August. 
 They crossed the Forth at Kinghorn, and proceeded to St. Andrews 
 by post-chaise. By the professors of that ancient university 
 they were cordially received and entertained with profuse hospi- 
 tality. Among the ruins of the once magnificent cathedral 
 Dr. Johnson inveighed against the ill-directed zeal of Presbyterian 
 reformers. The travellers having rested two days at St. Andrews, 
 proceeded northward by Dundee and Arbroath. When they 
 reached Montrose, Boswell communicated with Lord Monboddo, 
 who sent them a cordial invitation to his country seat. They
 
 88 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 dined witli his lordship, and from thence posted to Aberdeen. 
 There Dr. Johnson gratified his tastes by engaging in literary 
 gladiatorship with several of the professors. 
 
 On Sunday, the 30th August, the travellers inspected a re- 
 markable rock basin, known as the Buller of Buchan, and dined 
 at Slaius Castle with the Countess of Errol. Next day they 
 proceeded to Banff, and on that following to Elgin, when they 
 visited the ruins of the cathedral. On Friday, the 29th, they 
 reached Nairn, and from thence inspected Cawdor Castle. By 
 tlie Eev. Arlay Macaulay, minister of Cawdor, they were kindly 
 entertained ; he was known to them as author of a history of 
 St. Kilda, and he has further claim to remembrance as member 
 of a family which produced the celebrated Lord Macaulay, To 
 his guests he presented a useful itinerary. 
 
 On Saturday, the 30th August, the travellers inspected Fort 
 George, and dined with the governor, Sir Eyre Coote. Next 
 day, at Inverness, they attended the Episcopal Chapel, when 
 Boswell mentions as an odd coincidence, as to what might be 
 said of his connecting himself with Dr. Johnson, that Mr. Tait, ' 
 the clergyman, remarked in his discourse " 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 coincidence, puzzling to 
 Boswell, admitted of simple solution, for Mr. Collector Keith, of 
 the Excise, a native of Ayrshire, had met the travellers at Fort 
 George, and to the clergyman notified their approach. IVIr. 
 Tait's allusion, apart from its truthfulness, was in the worst 
 taste, and not to be justified. Boswell and Dr. Johnson dined 
 ^vith Mr, Keith. 
 
 At Inverness the travellers hired horses and procured guides. 
 They remained one night at Fort Augustus, entertained by the 
 governor, and tlience pursued tlieir journey to tlie opposite
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 89 
 
 shores of Skye, Inconvenienced by rougli roads, Dr. Johnson 
 became irritable. As they approached Glenelg, Boswell, without 
 apprising his companion, rode forward to secure at the inu the 
 necessary accommodations, Johnson called him back with an 
 angry shout, and on his return reproved him lustily. Boswell 
 felt hurt, but did not venture to recriminate. His reflections on 
 this occasion are thus recorded in his journal : — 
 
 " I wished to get on to see how we were to be lodged, and 
 how we were to get a boat ; all of which I thought I could best 
 settle myself, without his having any trouble. To apply his 
 gi'eat mind to minute particulars is wrong ; it is like taking an 
 immense balance (such as is kept on quays for weighing cargoes 
 of ships) to weigh a guinea. I knew I had neat little scales 
 which would do better, and that his attention to everytliing 
 which falls in his way, and his uncommon desire to be always 
 in the right, would make him weigh, if he knew of the particu- 
 lars ; it was right, therefore, for me to weigh them, and let him 
 have them only in effect. I, however, continued to ride by him, 
 finding he wished I should do so." 
 
 The travellers found the inn at Glenelg nearly destitute of 
 provisions, but Macleod's factor sent them rum and sugar, and 
 at night they rested on beds of hay. Next morning they sailed for 
 Skye, and landing at Armidale, were met by Sir Alexander ]\Iac- 
 donald and his lady, formerly Miss Bosville, of Yorkshire, with 
 whom they remained several days. They received much generous 
 hospitality from Mr. Mackinnon, a farmer who had entertained 
 Pennant, and were pleased to find that he possessed a consider- 
 able library. Invited to Easay by the insular Chief, they had 
 at his house a distinguished reception. After spending some 
 days at Easay they returned to Skye, and were conducted to 
 the residence of Mr. Macdonald, of Kingsburgh. His wife had 
 earned a reputation which secured her a visit from every 
 traveller penetrating into the Hebrides. She was the celebrated
 
 90 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Flora Macdonald, who under circumstances of peril enabled 
 Prince Charles Edward to elude the vigilance of his pursuers. 
 At Kingsburgh Dr. Johnson slept in the bed on which the 
 Prince rested twenty-seven years before. To her guests Mrs. 
 Macdonald related the circumstances of the Prince's escape. 
 
 The travellers were conducted to Dun vegan Castle, where 
 they were entertained by the Laird of Macleod and his accom- 
 plished mother, Lady Macleod. At Dunvegan, Boswell at- 
 tempting wit at Dr. Johnson's expense, paid dearly for his 
 rashness. Johnson retaliated, sarcastically presenting his assailant 
 under a variety of degrading images, so as to render him the 
 sport of the company. * 
 
 For two weeks the travellers were attended by Mr. Donald 
 McQueen, a clergyman in Skye, whose respectable scholarship 
 gratified Dr. Johnson, while his personal influence availed in 
 opening channels of hospitality. With Mr. McQueen they parted 
 on Saturday, the 25th September. On the evening of that 
 day, Dr. Johnson having retired at an early hour, Boswell sat up 
 drinking till five o'clock, when, much intoxicated, he was helped 
 to bed. In the afternoon Johnson entered his apartment, 
 and denounced him as "a drunken dog." The words were 
 uttered playfully, and the inebriate, who had begun to dread a 
 more terrible reproof, was pleased to find his companion in good 
 humour. He rose, and opened the Church of England Prayer- 
 book, and in the Epistle for the day read these words, — " And 
 be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess." " Some," he wrote, 
 " would have taken this as a divine interposition." 
 
 On Sunday, the 3rd October, the travellers left Skye for the 
 island of Col. When they had got to sea a tempest arose ; Dr. 
 Johnson went into the hold and lay down, overcome with sick- 
 ness. Conscious of danger, Boswell became meditative. 
 * Uoswcll's " Tour to the Hebrides."
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOS WELL. 91 
 
 " Piety," he writes, " afforded me comfort ; yet I was disturbed 
 by the objections that have been made against a particular 
 Providence, and by the arguments of those who maintain that 
 it is in vain to hope that the petitions of an individual, or even 
 of congregations, can have any influence with the Deity; objec- 
 tions which have been often made, and which Dr. Hawkesworth 
 has lately revived in his preface to the ' Voyages to the Soutli 
 Seas ; ' but Dr. Ogden's excellent doctrines on the efficacy of 
 intercession prevailed." 
 
 At Col the travellers enjoyed the hospitality of Donald 
 JMaclean, the young laird who some time previously was a com- 
 panion of their journey. Owing to unfavourable winds they 
 remained at Col till Wednesday, the 13th October, when they 
 sailed for Tobermory, in Mull. From thence they proceeded to 
 Ulva and Inchkenneth, enjoying on both islands the hospitality 
 of the owners, Mr. M'Quane and Sir Allan Maclean. Sir Allan 
 accompanied them in their voyage round ]\Iull to the island of 
 lona. They reached the island at nightfall, and procured beds 
 in a barn among hay. Boswell records that he was much im- 
 pressed with the solemnity of the scene ; while Sir Allan and 
 Dr. Johnson were at breakfast he quietly left his companions 
 and returned to the cathedral. In these words he records his 
 reflections : — 
 
 "While contemplating the venerable 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 prevent 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 strong propensity to fix upon some point of time from 
 whence a better course of life may begin." 
 
 Accompanied by Sir Allan Maclean the travellers returned to 
 Mull. After enjoy mg a series of hospitalities they sailed for
 
 92 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Oban, on the mainland. Next day they posted to Inverary. 
 Boswell reported their arrival to the Duke of Argyll, who cor- 
 dially invited them to dinner. To Dr. Johnson the Duke and 
 Duchess were extremely courteous, but Boswell's presence was 
 by the Duchess studiously ignored. As widow of the late Duke 
 of Hamilton she directed her displeasure at Boswell's zeal on 
 behalf of Mr. Archibald Douglas in claiming the Douglas estates, 
 which she believed to belong lawfully to her former husband. 
 Boswell took her Grace's displeasure as a compliment to his 
 talents, and has in his "Journey" playfully remarked that, his 
 "punishment being inflicted by so dignified a beauty,* he had 
 the consolation which a man would feel who is strangled by a 
 silken cord." 
 
 Arriving on the shores of Lochlomond, the travellers visited 
 Sir James Colquhoun, Bart., at Eossdhu, and Mr. Commissary 
 SmoUett, cousin of Dr. Tobias Smollett. They posted for Glasgow, 
 inspecting en route the ancient castle of Dumbarton. At Glas- 
 gow they visited the university, and two of the professors dined 
 with them at their inn. Proceeding to Ayrshire, they dined with 
 the Earl of Loudoun, and visited the aged Countess of Eglinton. 
 During the journey Boswell received a letter from his father, 
 permitting him to bring his friend to Auchiuleck. They arrived 
 there on Sunday, the 2nd November, and remained a week. 
 Lord Auchinleck and Dr. Johnson contended keenly on various 
 points, but the social current moved more smoothly than 
 Boswell had anticipated. Lord Auchinleck regarded Dr. John- 
 son's politics with aversion, and had denounced him as a 
 " Jacobite." Illustrative of his dislike, an anecdote has been 
 preserved by Sir Walter Scott. When Boswell left Edinburgh 
 
 * John, fifth Duke of Argyll, married Elizabeth, relict of James, 
 sixth Duke of Hamilton, and daughter of John Gunning, Esq., of 
 Castle Coote, co. Ivoscominou. The Duchess was a celebrated beauty.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 93 
 
 with Johnson on their northern tour, Lord Auchinleck remarked 
 to a friend, " There's nae hope for Jamie, man ; Jamie's gane 
 clean gyte. What do you think, man ? He's aff \vi' the Land- 
 louping scoundrel of a Corsican. And whase tail do ye think 
 he has pinned himself to now, man ? a dominie, man, — an auld 
 dominie, that keepit a schule and ca'd it an academy." Boswell 
 has denied the truth of a report which had gained credit, that 
 on his representing the lexicographer to his father as a constella- 
 tion of genius, he replied, " Ursa Major." Lord Auchinleck, he 
 admits, did use the expression, but it was spoken aside to a 
 brother judge as Dr. Johnson was standing in the Court of 
 Session.* 
 
 After an absence of eighty-three days the travellers returned 
 to Edinburgh. They were complimented and entertained by 
 Lord Elibank, Lady Colville, Lord Hailes, Principal Eobertson, 
 and others. Mrs. Boswell, though she did not oppose her 
 husband taking part in the Hebridean journey, was not recon- 
 ciled to it. On his return she remarked to him, " I have seen a 
 bear led by a man, but I never before saw a man led by a bear." 
 Boswell accepted the remark facetiously, and, in the belief he 
 would enjoy it, repeated it to Dr. Johnson. As might have been 
 expected, the lexicographer felt most keenly the allusion to his 
 rough manners, and he was placed in circumstances in which retort 
 was impossible. Eemoval was his only refuge, and he hastened 
 his departure. He left Edinburgh in the stage-coach on the 22nd 
 November — just twelve days after his return to the city. But 
 he did not forget Mrs. Bosv/ell's censure. For several years he 
 alluded to her disliking him in many letters to her husband. 
 Writing to Boswell on the 29th January, 1774, he sends his 
 compliments to Mrs. Boswell, adding, " Tell her I do not love 
 her the less for wishing me away." On the 5th March he wrote, 
 * Life of Johnson.
 
 94 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 "Mrs. Boswell is a sweet lady — only she was so glad to see 
 me go that I have almost a mind to come again, that she may 
 again have the same pleasure." In the same strain he writes 
 to Boswell on the 27th August, 1775, — 
 
 " Of Mrs. Boswell, though she knows in her lieart that she 
 does not love me, I am always glad to hear any good, and hope 
 that she and the dear little ladies will have neither sickness nor 
 any other affliction. But she knows that she does not care 
 what becomes of me, and for that she may be sure that I think 
 her very much to blame." 
 
 Dr. Johnson prepared his " Journey to the Hebrides " most 
 leisurely; it was not published till January, 1775. Boswell 
 received a parcel of copies, one for himself, others for persons 
 who had shown particular attention to the writer. In distri- 
 buting the volumes he invited special attention to an encomium 
 upon himself in the earlier portion of the work. Obtaining 
 charge of several cases appealed from the Court of Session to 
 the House of Lords, he hastened to Loudon to enjoy the honours 
 which he conceived Dr. Johnson's eulogy must have secured him. 
 
 On the evening of Saturday, the 18th March, Boswell by the 
 Edinburgh diligence reached Grantham. Travelling being sus- 
 pended till ]!Jouday, he in the interval wrote a long letter to 
 Mr. Temple. An extract follows. 
 
 " I am now," he proceeded, " so far on my way to London in the 
 fly. It is Saturday night, and we repose here all Sunday, I have 
 an acquaintance in Grantham, the Eev. Mr. Palmer, who was 
 chaplain to the late Speaker ; he is a worthy, learned, social man. 
 I sent him a card that I would breakfast with him to-morrow, 
 if not inconvenient to him. His answer is just come, which you 
 shall hear : As breakfasting will be attended with some inconve- 
 niences in the present state of his family, he will be very glad of the 
 favour of his company to a family dinner to-morrow at two o'clock. 
 AVhat can be the meaning of this ? Hoiv can breakfasting he
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOS WELL. 95 
 
 inconvenient to a family that dines ? Can he wish to lie long in 
 the morning that Queen Mab may be with him, ' tickling the 
 parson as he lies asleep ' ? or can his wife and daughter not 
 dress early enough ? Pray guess in your next, with a sacerdotal 
 sagacity, what this can be. I shall try to learn and let you 
 know. It is now early in the morning. I am writing in a 
 great English parlour, to have my letter ready for the post at 
 nine. It is comfortable to have such an acquaintance as 
 Palmer — so situated. I liave thought of making a good acquaint- 
 ance in each town on the road. No man has been more 
 successful in making acquaintance easily than I have been, I 
 even .bring people quickly on to a degree of cordiality. I am a 
 quick fire, but I know not if I last sufficiently, though surely, 
 my dear Temple, there is always a warm place for you. With 
 many people I have compared myself to a taper, which can 
 light up a great and lasting fire, though itself is soon ex- 
 tinguished. . . . . 
 
 " Mr. Johnson, when enumerating our club, observed of some 
 of us that they talked from books, — Langton in particular. 
 Garrick, he said, would talk from books, if he talked seriously. 
 ' I,' said he, ' do not talk from books ; you do not talk from 
 books.' This was a compliment to my originality, but I am 
 afraid I have not read books enough to be able to talk from 
 them. You are very kind in saying that I may overtake you in 
 learning. Believe me, though, that I have a kind of impotency 
 of study ; however, nil desperandum est. . . . 
 
 " For my own part, I have continued schemes of publication, 
 but cannot fix. I am still very unhappy with my father. We 
 are so totally different that a good understanding is scarcely 
 possible. He looks on my going to London just now as an 
 expedition, as idle and extravagant, when in reality it is highly 
 improving to me, considering the company which I enjoy ; and 
 I think it is also for my interest, as in time I may get some- 
 thing. Lord Pembroke was very obliging to me when he was 
 in Scotland, and has corresponded with me since. I have hopes 
 from him. How happy should I be to get an independency by 
 my own influence while my father is alive !
 
 96 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 " I am in charming health and spirits. There is a handsome 
 maid in this inn, who interrupts me by coming sometimes into 
 the room — I have no confession to make, my priest, so be not 
 curious. 
 
 ****** 
 
 " Dr. Young says, — 
 
 ' A fever argues better than a Clarke.' 
 
 It is as fair reasoning for me to say that this handsome maid 
 (Matty is her name) argues better than — whom you please." 
 
 Bos well reached London on the 21st March, and at once 
 waited on Dr. Johnson, who received him cordially. On the 
 4th April he despatched a long letter to Mr. Temple, of which 
 a portion is subjoined : — 
 
 " My DEAR Temple, 
 
 " My last was indeed a characteristical letter : I was quite in 
 my old humour. My mind, formerly a wild, has been for some 
 years pretty well enclosed with moral fences ; but I fear the 
 fences are stone hedges (to use a strange expression of Mr. 
 Johnson in his ' Journey ') of a loose construction, for a storm of 
 passion would blow them down. When at Grantham there 
 was a pretty brisk gale, which shook them; but now Eeason, 
 that steady builder and overseer, has setthem firm, or they have 
 proved to be better than I thought them, for my enclosures are 
 in as good order as ever. I thank you, however, for your 
 friendly props ; your kind counsels pleased me much. 
 
 * # * * * * 
 
 '.' Your soft admonitions would at any time calm the tempests 
 of m}^ soul. I told you that my arguments for concubinage were 
 only for theory ; the patriarchs might have a plurality, because 
 they were ik)t taught that it was wrong ; but I, who have always 
 been taught that it is wrong, cannot have the same enjoyment 
 without an impression of its being so, and consequently without 
 my moral sens« suffering. But is not this prejudice ? Be 
 it so V
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 97 
 
 " I had last niglit an unexpected call to be at the bar of the 
 House of Commons this day for Captain Erskine, brother to Miss 
 rioyer's husband, as counsel for him in the Clackmannan elec- 
 tion, where he is petitioner. I had neither wig nor gown with 
 me. I posted to Claxton's early this morning, and he has kindly 
 lent me both. I know not but in equity he should have a share 
 of the guineas which they bring. . . . 
 
 " To-day I dine at Sir John Pringle's ; ^ to-morrow at Dilly's, 
 with Mr. Johnson and Langton, &c. ; Thursday at Tom Davies's, 
 with J\Ir. Johnson and some others ; Friday at tlie Turk's Head, 
 Gerrard Street, with our club, Sir Joshua Keynolds, &c., who 
 now dine once a month, and sup every Friday. My forenoons 
 are spent in visiting, and you know the distances of London 
 make that business enough. Mr. Johnson has allowed me to 
 write out a supplement to his Journey, but I wish I may be able 
 to settle to it. This House of Commons work will be good 
 ballast for me. I am little in what is called the gaiety of 
 London ; I went to Mrs, Abingdon's benefit to please Sir Joshua 
 Eeynolds. I have been at no other public place except exhibi- 
 tions of pictures with Lord Mountstuart ; * he is warmly my 
 friend, and has engaged to do for me. His brother's lady,-}* a 
 sweet, handsome, lively little woman, is my wife's intimate 
 friend. I pass many of my morning hours with her. Paoli and 
 I (for his simple designation is the highest) are to be at Wilton 
 some time between the 10th and 26th of this month ; I shall go 
 from thence to your parsonage and overpower you with vivacity, 
 and return to Bath." 
 
 Boswell proceeded to Mamhead, and there, though his host 
 
 * John, Lord Mountstuart, eldest son of John, third Earl of 
 Bute, and afterwards first Marquess of Bute. He was horn 30th June, 
 1744, and died 16th N'ovember, 1814. 
 
 t This lady was Margaret, daughter of Sir David Cunninghanie, of 
 Milnecraig, and his wife, Lady Mary Montgomery, daughter of 
 Alexander, ninth Earl of Eglinton. She married, in 1767, the Hon. 
 James Archibald Stuart, second son of John, third Earl of Bute. 
 This gentleman was one of Boswell's most attached friends. 
 
 H
 
 98 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 was an abstainer, got very drunk, Mr. Temple entreated him, 
 when he became sober, to abandon his intemperate habits. 
 As they talked together under an aged yew, Boswell vowed that 
 he should henceforth avoid excess and cherish moderation. 
 In a letter to Mr. Temple, dated the 10th May, he remarked 
 that Dr. Johnson was now discouraging his proposal to add 
 a supplement to his "Journey." This proceeding he attributes 
 to Dr. Johnson's unwillingness that any one should share his 
 laurels. " But don't you think," he adds, " I may write out my 
 remarks on Scotland, and send them to be revised by you ? 
 and then they may be published freely. Give me 'your opinion 
 of this." 
 
 Good Friday, which fell upon the 14th of April, Boswell 
 spent with Dr. Johnson. They were present at three religious 
 services, and in the evening they sat " a long while together in a 
 serene, undisturbed frame of mind." On Easter Sunday Boswell 
 " attended the solemn service at St. Paul's." Writing next day 
 to Mr. Temple, he informs him that he had " received the holy 
 sacrament, and was exalted in piety." In the same letter he 
 reports that he is enjoying " the metropolis to the full," and that 
 he has had " too much dissipation." He asks his friend not to 
 fear " his Asiatic multiplicity," except when he liappens to 
 " take too much claret." 
 
 Boswell remained in London about two months, and though 
 chiefly engaged in driving out, contrived to pocket forty guineas 
 of professional fees. From Grantham, en route for Scotland, he 
 wrote to Mr. Temple that, much to his disgust, " Henry Dundas,* 
 a coarse, unlettered, unfanciful dog," was to be made Lord 
 Advocate " at thirty-three," and that he had personally resolved 
 to join the English Bar on obtaining his father's consent. He 
 proceeds, — 
 
 * Afterwards Viscount Melville.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 99 
 
 "I passed a delightful day yesterday. After breakfasting 
 with Paoli and worshipping at St. Paul's, I dined tetc-d-tete with 
 my charming Mrs. Stuart, of whom you have read in my Journal. 
 She refused to be of a party at Eichmond, that she and I might 
 enjoy a farewell interview. We dined in all the elegance of two 
 courses and a dessert, with dumb waiters, except when the 
 second course and the dessert were served. We talked with un- 
 reserved freedom, as we had nothing to fear; we were philo- 
 sophical, upon honour — not deep, but feeling we were pious ; 
 we drank tea, and bid each other adieu as purely as romance 
 paints. She is my wife's dearest friend, so you see how beautiful 
 our intimacy is." 
 
 Boswell adds that "the handsome chambermaid had gone 
 from the inn," and that he had promised Dr. Johnson to accept 
 a chest of books of the moralist's own selection, and to " read 
 more and drink less." He sums up, " Tell Mrs. Temple that I 
 am a favourite with her, because she knows me better, and that 
 she may be assured that the more she knows me the more 
 allowance will she make for my faults." A postscript is added. 
 " There is," he writes, " a Miss Silverton in the fly with me 
 an amiable creature, who has been in France. I can unite little 
 fondnesses with perfect conjugal love. Eemember to put my 
 letters in a book neatly, — see which of us does it first." 
 
 From Edinburgh, on the 3rd June, Boswell wrote to Mr. 
 Temple as follows : — 
 
 " On my arrival here I had the pleasure to find my wife 
 and two little daughters as well as I could wish ; but indeed, 
 my worthy friend, it required some philosophy to bear the 
 change from England to Scotland. The unpleasing tone, the 
 rude familiarity, the barren conversation, of those whom I found 
 here, in comparison with what I had left, really hurt my feelings. 
 . . . The General Assembly is sitting, and I practise at its 
 bar. There is de facto something low and coarse in such
 
 100 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 employment, though on paper it is a Court of Supreme Judi- 
 cature ; but guineas must be had." 
 
 " Low and coarse " as Boswell regarded the practice of his pro- 
 fession in the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, he 
 acknowledges that he did not perform his part without some 
 misgiving. " Do you know," he proceeds, "it requires more 
 than ordinary spirit to do what I am to do this very morning ; I 
 am to go to the General Assembly and arraign a judgment 
 pronounced last year by Dr. Kobertson, John Home, and a good 
 many more of them, and they are to appear on the other side. 
 To speak well, when I despise both the cause and the judges, 
 is difhcult ; but I believe I shall do so wonderfully. I look 
 forward with aversion to the little dull labours of the Court of 
 Session." 
 
 Besides being disgusted with the Scottish Lord Advocate, 
 Scottish manners, and Scottish courts, ecclesiastical and civil, 
 Boswell was particularly dissatisfied with his father. He had 
 sent him, he writes, " a conciliatory letter, but he fears he is 
 callous." In dread of the paternal allowance being discon- 
 tinued, he writes, — 
 
 " If Lord Mountstuart would but give me an independency 
 from the King while my father lives, I should be a fine fellow.'' 
 He adds, " My promise under the venerable yew has kept me 
 sober." 
 
 Boswell's habits were not more pleasing to his father than 
 were his professional diligence and domestic economy. In 
 the belief that his son was an incorrigible idler, Lord Auchin- 
 leck seriously meditated a withdrawal of his pension. But 
 for his two children, disinheritance might have followed. To 
 Mr. Temx)le on the 19th of June he wrote thus : — 
 
 " My father is most unhappily dissatisfied with me. My wife 
 and I dined with him on Saturday ; he did not salute her, though
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 101 
 
 he had not seen her for three months; "nor did he so much as 
 ask her how she did, though she is advanced in pregnancy. I 
 understand he fancies that if I had married another woman, I 
 might not only have had a better portion with her, but might 
 have been kept from what he thinks idle and extravagant con- 
 duct. He harps on my going over Scotland with a brute * (think 
 how shockingly erroneous !), and wandering, or some such 
 phrase, to London. In vain do I defend myself; even the cir- 
 cumstance that my last jaunt to London did not cost me £20 — 
 as I got forty-two guineas in London — does not affect him. How 
 hard it is that I am totally excluded from parental comfort ! I 
 have a mind to go to Auchinleck next autumn, and try what 
 living in a mixed stupidity of attention to common objects, and 
 restraint from expressing any of my own feelings, can do with 
 him. I always dread his making some bad settlement." 
 
 Lord Auchinleck had solid grounds for indignation. He 
 allowed his son £300 per annum, besides having provided him 
 with a very expensive education. In the Scottish courts BosweU 
 had abundant employment when he evinced the slightest incli- 
 nation to attend to it. He had run himself aground ; he owed 
 a thousand pounds, which he could not pay, and his creditors 
 were clamorous. Fretting under the unexpected burden which 
 he was expected to sustain, Lord Auchinleck felt disposed to 
 blame his daughter-in-law for encouraging his son's extrava- 
 gance, and it is not certain that BosweU took the blame solely 
 upon himself The worthy judge was at length got over, and 
 BosweU recovered his elasticity. To Mr. Temple on the 12 th 
 August he writes as follows : — 
 
 " TeU me, my dear Temple, if a man who receives so many 
 marks of more than ordinary consideration can be satisfied to 
 drudge in an obscure corner, where the manners of the people 
 
 * A forcible rendering of what he meant by styling Dr. Johnson 
 " Ursa major."
 
 102 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 are disagreeable to him ? You see how soon I revive again. 
 Could I but persuade my father to give me £400 a year, and let 
 me go to the English Bar, I think I should be much better. 
 That, however, seems to be impossible. As he is bound for 
 £1,000 which I owe, he has resolved to lessen his allowance to 
 me of £300 to £200. I must not dispute with him, but he is 
 really a strange man. He is gone to Auchinleck. I intend to 
 pass a little while with him there soon, and sound him ; or 
 ther see just what attention can produce." 
 
 In allusion to the request that his letters might be preserved, 
 BosAvell was assured by Mr. Temple that he too contemplated 
 a publication. Bos well pronounces it " a charming thought."* 
 He refers exultingly to the attention he had lately received from 
 Paoli. " For the last fortnight that I was in London," he writes, 
 I lay at his house, and had the command of his coach. . . . 
 I felt more dignity when I had several servants at my devotion, 
 a large apartment, and the convenience and state of a coach ; I 
 recollected that this dignity in London was honourably acquired 
 by my travels abroad, an\i my pen after I came home, so I could 
 enjoy it with my own approbation; and in the extent and 
 multiplicity of the metropolis other people had not even the 
 materials for finding fault, as my situation was not particularly 
 kjiown." 
 
 Referring to his resolution to read more constantly, Boswell 
 informs Mr. Temple, on the 19th June, that he has not yet 
 " begun to read," but that " his resolution is lively." Lord 
 Karnes had asked him to become his biographer, a piece of 
 intelligence which does not again crop up. In a conversation 
 about Dr. Johnson he had disputed with Mr. Hume. The quarrel 
 is thus described : — 
 
 " Mr. Hume said he would give me half a crown for every 
 page of his dictionary in which he would not find an absurdity, 
 
 * Letter dated 6tli June, 1775.
 
 MEMOm OF JAMES BOSWELI. 108 
 
 if I would give him half a crown for every page in which 
 he did find one ; he talked so insolently, really, that I calmly 
 determined to be at him; so I repeated, by way of telling 
 that Dr. Johnson could be touched, the admirable passage in 
 your letter, how the Ministry had set him to write in a way 
 that they ' could not ask even their infidel pensioner Hume to 
 write.' Upon honour, I did not give the least hint from whom 
 I had the letter. Wlien Hume asked if it was from an American, 
 I said 'Xo; it was from an English gentleman.' 'Would a 
 gentleman write so?' said he. In short, Davy was finely 
 punished for his treatment of my revered friend ; and he deserved 
 it richly, both for his petulance to so great a character, and for 
 his talking so before me." 
 
 In a letter dated 12th August he informed his reverend 
 correspondent that he had been suffering from liis " atrabilious 
 temperament." In his melancholy he had been strongly 
 impressed by the phrase in Scripture, " Seek ye the Lord while 
 He may be found," From sleep at night he had awakened 
 " dreading annihilation or being thrown into . some horrible 
 state of being." He proceeds : — 
 
 " My promise under the solemn yew I have observed wonder- 
 fully, having never infringed it till tlie other day a very jovial 
 company of us dined at a tavern, and I unwarily exceeded my 
 bottle of old hock ; and having once broke over the pale I run 
 wild. But I did not get drunk ; I was, however, intoxicated, 
 and very ill next day. I ask your forgiveness, and I shall be 
 more strictly cautious for the future. The drunken manners of 
 this country are very bad." 
 
 The distinction between being intoxicated and clntnk is not 
 very obvious, and the allusion by way of defence to the intem- 
 perate habits of the country is Bosivcllian. Amidst his general 
 gloom Boswell experienced comfort in the assurance by Mr. 
 Temple that he w^as preparing for the press a portion of their 
 correspondence. A specimen was transmitted, and Boswell ten-
 
 104 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 dered his advice. He insisted that anonymous authorship would 
 not suit, and suggested that his own name as " James Bos well, 
 Esq.," should be displayed upon the title-page. Mr. Temple 
 subsequently published selections from his own letters under the 
 title of " Selection of Historical and Political IMemoirs." 
 
 About the middle of August Boswell be(To;ed Dr. Johnson for 
 a prescription against melancholy. The moralist replied : — 
 
 " For the black fumes which rise in your mind I can prescribe 
 nothing but that you disperse them by honest business or inno- 
 cent pleasure, and by reading, sometimes easy and sometimes 
 serious. Change of place is useful, and I hope your residence 
 at Auchinleck will have many good effects. , . . Never, my dear 
 sir," added Dr. Johnson, " do you take it in your head to think 
 that I do not love you ; you may settle yourself in full confidence 
 both of my love and esteem. I love you as a kind man, I value 
 you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a 
 man of exemplary piety. I told you, as Hamlet has it, ' in my 
 heart of hearts,' and therefore it is little to say that I am, 
 sir, your affectionate, humble servant, " Sam. Johnson." 
 
 To check his " atrabilious " complaint Boswell did not have 
 recourse to reading. He informed ]\Ir. Temple that since his 
 return from England his reading had been confined to some 
 small treatises on midwifery. On the 2nd September he com- 
 municated with Mr. Temple from Auchinleck, He had been 
 there a week, and had experienced an unsupportable distress. 
 Next day being Sunday, he proposed to worship in the parish 
 church, and on Monday to join at Edinburgh his "valuable 
 spouse and dear little children." To his dissension with his 
 father he refers in characteristic fashion : — 
 
 " My father, whom I really both respect and affectionate (if 
 that is a word, for it is a different feeling from that which is ex- 
 pressed by love, which I can say of you from my soul), is so 
 different from me. We divaricate so much, as Dr. Johnson said> 
 that I am often hurt when I dare say he means no harm ; and he
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 105 
 
 has a method of treating me which makes me feel myself like a 
 timid hoy, which to Boswell (comprehending all that my character 
 does in my own imagination and in that of a wonderful number 
 of mankind) is intolerable. His wife, too, whom in my conscience 
 I cannot condemn for any capital bad quality, is so narrow- 
 minded, and, I don't know how, so set upon keeping him under 
 her own management, and so suspicious and so sourishly tem- 
 pered that it requires the utmost exertion of practical philosophy 
 to keep myself quiet. I, however, have done so all this week to 
 admiration ; nay, I have appeared good-humoured, but it has 
 cost me drinking a considerable quantity of strong beer to dull 
 my faculties. . . . 
 
 " I have sauntered about with my father, and he has seen that 
 I am pleased with his works. But what a discouraging reflection 
 it is that he has in his possession a renunciation of my birth- 
 right which I madly granted him, and which he has not the 
 generosity to restore now that I am doing beyond his utmost 
 hopes, and that he may incommode and disgrace me by some 
 strange settlement, while all this time not a shilling is secured 
 to my wife and children in case of my death. . . . ]\Iy 
 father is visibly failing. Perhaps I may get him yet to do 
 as I wish. In the meantime I have written plainly to my 
 brother David, to see if he will settle on my wife and daughters, 
 in case of his succeeding. I shall now know whether trade has 
 destroyed his liberal spirit." 
 
 Amidst his many aberrations, and in spite of Dr. Johnson's 
 discouragement, Boswell put into shape his travels in the 
 Hebrides. He forwarded the MS. to Johnson, who remarked 
 on it to Mrs. Thrale, " One would think the man had been hired 
 to be a spy upon me." To Boswell he conveyed Mrs. Thrale's 
 favourable judgment, but reserved his own. On this subject 
 Boswell thus communicated with Mr. Temple : — 
 
 " Dr. Johnson has said nothing to me of my remarks during 
 my journey with him which I wish to write. Shall I task 
 myself to write so much of them a week, and send you fur
 
 lOG MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL, 
 
 revisal? If I do not publish them now they will be good 
 materials for my ' Life of Dr. Johnson.' " 
 
 On the 9th October Boswell was enabled to rejoice in an im- 
 portant event, — j\Irs. Boswell presented him with a son. To 
 j\Ir. Temple he wi'ote on the 6 th November : — 
 
 " j\Iy wife is recovered remarkably well. This son has been 
 quite a cordial to her. He has been a little unlucky ; the nurse 
 had not milk enough, and as he is a big-boned fellow he cannot 
 subsist without plentiful sustenance. We have got another 
 nurse, a strong, healthy woman, with an abundant breast. His 
 mother is quite unfit for nursing, she is of a temper so exceed- 
 ingly anxious." 
 
 Boswell pamed his infant son Alexander, after his father. The 
 compliment was well received, and in a few months afterwards 
 Boswell was relieved of all apprehensions respecting his inherit- 
 ance. By his father he was consulted as to the provisions of a 
 deed of entail. He solicited counsel from Dr. Johnson * and 
 Lord Hailes on a point respecting which he and his father dis- 
 agreed. Lord Auchinleck proposed that in the series of heirs to 
 be established under the entail, all males descending from his 
 grandfather shoidd be preferred to females, but he would not 
 extend that privilege to males deriving their descent from a 
 higher source. Boswell, on the other hand, desired that heirs 
 male, however remote, should be preferred. As both Dr. Johnson 
 and Lord Hailes supported the view of Lord Auchinleck, and 
 Boswell at length acquiesced in his father's wishes, the entail, 
 a document extendmg to thirty-seven folio pages, was executed 
 at Edinburgh on the 7th August, 1776. The instrument proceeds 
 thus : — -f* 
 
 * Boswell's "Life of Johnson," London, 1848, 10 vols., 12mo., 
 vol. vi., p. 34. 
 
 I From the Register of Tailzies, preserved in the General Register 
 House, Ediubuigh, vol. xix., folio 233.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 107 
 
 " I ALEXANDER BOSWEL of Aucliinleck Esquire one 
 of the Senators of the College of Justice considering that 
 having long intended to make a full settlement of my estate, 
 but which I have put off a long time, not having fallen upon a 
 plan which gave me satisfaction, notwithstanding I have seen a 
 multiplicity of settlements, I am now come to the resolution to 
 execute what follows, which though it appears to me better 
 calculated to answer the ends of a family settlement, and to be 
 more free from objections than others I have seen, I am conscious 
 is not exempt from faults, for I see them. But when one is 
 providing for futurity it is impossible to obviate all incon- 
 veniences. I have, however, chose this form as appearing to 
 me subject to the fewest. The Settlement I am to make is a 
 Taillie or Deed of Entail intended to be perpetual, which not- 
 withstanding the prejudices of the ignorant and dissipated part 
 of mankind to the contrary I have always approved of, if 
 properly devised. My motive to it is not the preservation of my 
 name and memory, for I know that after death our places here 
 know us no more. But my motives are that the strength of the 
 happy constitution with which this kingdom is blest, depends 
 in a great measure upon there being kept up a proper number of 
 Gentlemen's families of independent fortunes. It was this which 
 at first introduced the right of primogeniture amongst us, a 
 right well adapted to the good of the younger, as well as the 
 eldest, as it prevents estates crumbling down by division into 
 morsels. It enables the several successive heirs to educate their 
 whole children properly, and thereby fit them for different 
 employments, so that these families are useful nurseries. On 
 the other hand a danger arises from an accumulation of different 
 estates into the hands of overgrown rich men. Again the 
 estate which I have, though not great, is sufficient for answering 
 aU the reasonable expenses of a gentleman's family and is 
 situate in an agreeable country with the people of which I and 
 my worthy predecessors have had the happiness to live in great 
 friendship, which I hope shall always be the case with those that 
 succeed me ; and the place of residence has many uncommon 
 beauties and conveniences, which several considerations would
 
 108 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 make any wise man careful to preserve such an estate. But as 
 an heir may happen to get it who by weakness or extravagance 
 would soon put an end to it, I cannot think any wise man will 
 condemn me if while I allow the heirs of Taillie every power which 
 a man of judgment would wish to exercise, I restrain them only 
 from acting foolishly. If a person saw his next heir a weak 
 foolish and extravagant person he would justly be censured if in 
 place of giving his estate to his other children, or bestowing it 
 upon some worthy friend who would make a proper use of it, he 
 let it drop into the hands of a person who had nothing to 
 recommend him but the legal character of an heir who directly 
 on his succession would let it fly. I say he would justly be 
 censured for this unless he laid that unhappy heir under proper 
 restraints. And if this would be an advisable precaution to 
 follow where the person is seen, it must be equally so whenever 
 an heir happens to exist of that unhappy disposition at any 
 period however remote, for no time can come when any reason- 
 able man can think it would be beneficial to allow a person to 
 act foolishly, do therefore hereby, — with the special advice 
 and consent of James Boswell, Esquire, Advocate, younger of 
 Auchinleck my eldest son, and under these impressions and in 
 the hope and belief that I have fallen on a method of preventing 
 children from being independent of their parents and of securing 
 a proper provision for younger children, not only at first, which 
 is all that is commonly done, but in all future times, the want 
 of which appeared to me the most solid objection to Taillies — 
 give, grant, and dispose heretably and Irredeemably to myself 
 and the heirs male procreated and to be procreated of my 
 body whom failing the lands of Auchinleck to Dr. John Boswell 
 physician in Edinburgh my brother german and the heirs male 
 lawfully procreated or to be procreated of his body, whom failing 
 to Claude Boswell of Balmuto Esquire advocate, only son of the 
 deceast John Boswell of Balmuto who was the only brother of 
 the deceast Mr. James Boswell of Auchinleck advocate my father 
 and the heirs male lawfully procreated or to be procreated of 
 the body of the said Claude Boswell, whom failing to the heirs 
 whatsoever lawfully procreated or to be procreated of my body,
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 109 
 
 whom failing, to my own nearest heirs whatsoever descended 
 of the body of Thomas Boswell of Auchinleck my predecessor, 
 whom all failing to my own nearest heirs and assignies what- 
 soever — the eldest heir female and the descendants of her body 
 always excluding heirs portioners and succeeding still without 
 division, throughout the whole course of succession of heirs 
 whatsoever as wxll as heirs of provision." 
 
 After excluding from the succession all fatuous persons, and 
 regulating annuities for females and younger children, Lord 
 Auchinleck proceeds to guard against the extinction of the family 
 name. 
 
 " It is hereby," he adds, " specially provided and declared 
 That in case any of the heirs male of my body who shall 
 succeed to my said lands and estate shall also succeed to a 
 peerage or to any other estate entailed under such con- 
 ditions as may restrain the heir from carrying my name and arms 
 then and in every such case the person so succeeding to the said 
 peerage or other such entailed estate when he is possessed of 
 my said estate or succeeding to my estate when having right 
 to such peerage or possessed of such other entailed estate shall 
 forfeit all right and title to my said lands and estate and that 
 not only for himself but also for his apparent heir and for all the 
 apparent heirs of such an apparent heir in a direct line down- 
 wards whether in a nearer or remoter degree and my said estate 
 shall devolve and belong to the next heir of Taillie though 
 descending of the body of the person excluded or of his apparent 
 heir in the same manner as if the person excluded and all the 
 apparent heirs in the said peerage were naturally dead." 
 
 On Friday, the 15th March, 1776, Boswell arrived in London. 
 Four days thereafter he accompanied Dr. Johnson, first to 
 Oxford and afterwards to Lichfield. At Oxford they had agree- 
 able intercourse with Dr. Wetherell, Master of University 
 College; Dr. Adams, Master of Pembroke College; Dr. Bentham, 
 Professor of Divinity; Mr. Thomas Warton, and Dr. Home,
 
 110 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Bishop of Norwich. En route for Lichfiekl they paused at 
 Birmingham, to visit Dr. Johnson's schoolfellow, j\Ir. Hector. 
 Boswell improved the occasion by visiting, at Soho, Mr, Matthew 
 Boiilton, the celebrated mechanician, and partner of James 
 Watt. Finding Mr. Boulton at the head of seven hundred 
 mechanics, he describes him as " an iron chief," and a " father 
 to his tribe." At Lichfield he was introduced to Mrs. Lucy 
 Porter, Dr. Johnson's step- daughter, " an old maid, of simple 
 manners," living on a fortune of £10,000 bequeathed to her 
 by her brother, a captain in the navy. On Friday, the 29th 
 March, the travellers returned to London. 
 
 Good Friday, which fell on the 5 th of April, Boswell spent 
 with Dr. Johnson. They worshipped together morning and 
 evening in St. Clement's Church. On Easter Sunday Boswell 
 attended morning service in St, Paul's Cathedral, and in the 
 evening accompanied Dr. Johnson to his pew in St. Clement's. 
 
 In the preceding January the brothers Daniel and Kobert 
 Perreau were hanged for forgery. They were convicted on the 
 evidence of Margaret Caroline Paidd, who cohabited with one of 
 them, and who, to save her own life, proved informer. This 
 woman possessed uncommon powers of fascination, and it was 
 believed that she had duped the brothers into the crime for 
 which they suffered. Like other great criminals, Mrs. Eudd 
 had acquired a temporary celebrity, and on this account Boswell 
 determined to visit her. He carried out his intention, and 
 confessed himself charmed by Mrs. Eudd's conversation and 
 manners. Under the plea that he would interest Mrs, Boswell, 
 he made a full record of Mrs, Eudd's conversation, transmitting 
 the jMS. to ]\Ir. Temple, that he and his patron, Lord Lisburne, 
 might " enjoy " its perusal. To his many whims and vagaries 
 in the past Mr, Temple had submitted with more than befitting 
 good nature, but the celebration of Mrs, Eudd was beyond his
 
 MEMOIK OF JAMES BOSWELL. lU 
 
 endurance. He denounced the interview, and tlie record of it ; 
 and Boswell, satisfied that he had been imprudent for once, took 
 back his MS. 
 
 Writing to Mr. Temple on the 28th April he remarks that he 
 " must eat commons in the Inner Temple this week and next, 
 to make out another term, that he may still be approximating to 
 the English Bar." He then proceeds : — 
 
 " I don't know but you have spoken too highly of Gibbon's 
 book; the Dean of Derry,* who is of our club, as well as 
 Gibbon, talks of answering it. I think it is right that as fast 
 as infidel wasps or venomous insects, whether creeping or flying, 
 are hatched, they should be crushed. Murphy says he has read 
 thirty pages of Smith's 'Wealth,' but says he shall read no 
 more. Smith too is now of our club. It has lost its select 
 merit. He has gone to Scotland at the request of David Hume, 
 who is said to be dying. General Paoli had a pretty remark 
 when I told him of this : " Ah ! je suis fache qu'il soit detrompe 
 si tot." 
 
 In a subsequent letter Boswell describes Gibbon as " an ugly, 
 affected, disgusting fellow," adding, " he poisons our Literary 
 Club to me." Gibbon was elected a member of the club in 
 March, 1774. With an agreeable presence and elegant 
 manners his conversational powers were of a high order. His 
 religious sentiments being obnoxious to Dr. Johnson led to 
 
 * The Eev. Thomas Bernard, D.D., Dean of Derry, was elected a 
 member of the Literary Club in December, 1755. Sou of William 
 Barnard, D.D., successively Bishop of Eaphoe and Derry, he Avas 
 educated at Westminster School. Obtaining orders, he was appointed 
 Dean of Derry in 1769. He was consecrated Bishop of Killaloe in 1 780, 
 and translated to the see of Limerick in 1794. He died at Wimbledon, 
 Surrey, on the 7th June, 1806. He was a cherished friend of Dr. 
 Goldsmith, and an associate of Johnson, Burke, and Sir Joshua 
 Eeynolds.
 
 112 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Boswell's personal dislike. Dr. Adam Smith was admitted to 
 the club on the 24th December, 1775. He and "Dr. Johnson 
 had been at variance, but the quarrel was made up. Doubtless 
 in connection with this controversy Boswell thought meet to 
 censure the philosopher and his work. That a literary club which 
 had added to its membership Edward Gibbon and Adam Smith 
 should thereby have lost " its select merit/' reads strangely, even 
 as a dictum of James Boswell. 
 
 Boswell's personal habits remained much the same. He 
 informed Mr. Temple that his " promise u*der the solemn yew " 
 had not been " religiously kept." He had lately given " his word 
 of honour " to General Paoli that " he would not taste fermented 
 liquor for a year." He adds, " I have kept the promise now 
 about three weeks; I was really growing a drunkard." 
 
 At the end of April BosweU proceeded to Bath, and there 
 joined Dr. Johnson at the residence of the Thrales. He accom- 
 panied Dr. Johnson to Bristol, where they inspected the church 
 of St. Mary, Ptedcliff, and discoursed on the genius and errors of 
 Chatterton. Pteturning to London, Boswell realized a project on 
 which he had set his heart — that of bringing together Dr. John- 
 son and Mr, Wilkes. On this subject he writes : — 
 
 " My desire of being acquainted with celebrated men of every 
 description had made me much about the same time obtain an 
 introduction to Dr. Samuel Johnson and to John Wilkes, Esq. 
 Two men more different could perhaps not be selected out of all 
 mankind. They had even attacked one another with some asperity 
 in their writings ; yet I lived in habits of friendship with both. 
 I could fully relish the excellence of each, for I have ever de- 
 lighted in that intellectual chemistry which can separate good 
 qualities from evil in the same person." 
 
 Boswell contrived a meeting between Dr. Johnson and Mr, 
 Wilkes by the exercise of considerable craft. Having been
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 113 
 
 invited to meet Mr. Wilkes at the table of Mr. Edward DiUy, lie 
 bore a message from that gentleman to Dr. Johnson, requesting 
 him to join the party. In conveying it he jilayed on tlie Doctor's 
 " spirit of contradiction." Having repeated Mr. Dilly's message 
 without reference to the other guests, the following conversation 
 ensued : — 
 
 Johnson : " Sir, I am obliged to Mr. Dilly ; I will wait upon 
 him." 
 
 Boswell : " Provided, sir, I suppose, that the company which 
 he is to have is agreefUale to you ? " 
 
 Johnson : " What do you mean, sir ? What do you take me 
 for ? Do you think I am so ignorant of the world as to imagine 
 that I am to prescribe to a gentleman what company he is to 
 have at his table ? " 
 
 BoswcU ; " I beg your pardon, sir, for wishing to prevent you 
 from meeting people whom you might not like. Perhaps he 
 may have some of what he calls his patriotic friends with him." 
 
 Johnson : " Well, sir, and what then ? What care I for his 
 patriotic friends ? Poh ! " 
 
 Boswell: "I should not be surprised to find Jack Wilkes 
 there." 
 
 Johnson : " And if Jack Wilkes should be there, what is that 
 to me, sir ? My dear friend, let us have no more of this. I 
 am sorry to be angry with you, but it is treating me strangely 
 to talk to me as if I could not meet any company whatever oc- 
 casionally." • 
 
 Johnson and Wilkes met not unpleasantly, and Boswell 
 had his triumph. In May he returned to Edinburgh. Before 
 leaving London he repeated to Dr. Johnson his former promise 
 that he would devote a portion of his time to reading. Johnson 
 despatched to him at Edinburgh several boxes of books, thereby 
 relieving his collection of supernumerary volumes, and by placing 
 on the books a marketable value discharging a debt which 
 
 * " Life of Johnson." 
 1
 
 114 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 he owed on the Hebridean journey. After an interval Boswell 
 reported that owing to a renewed attack of melancholy the boxes 
 remained unopened. Johnson in these words administered 
 reproof : 
 
 " To hear that you have not opened your boxes of books is 
 very offensive. The examination and arrangement of so many 
 volumes might have afforded you an amusement very seasonable 
 at present, and useful for the whole of life. I am, I confess, 
 very angry that you manage yourself so ill." 
 
 Boswell opened the boxes, and found what he describes as 
 " truly a numerous and miscellaneous stall library thrown 
 together at random." It was not further disturbed. 
 
 Boswell's melancholy did not proceed from any constitutional 
 disorder. He was involved in debt, and his creditors were 
 importunate. His father was again appealed to, and the liabili- 
 ties were discharged. Rejoicing in his deliverance he commu- 
 nicated the good news to Dr. Johnson. On the 16th November 
 the Doctor thus conveyed his congratulations : — 
 
 " I had great pleasure in hearing that you are at last on good 
 terms with your father. Cultivate his kindness by all honest 
 and manly means. Life is but short : no time can be afforded 
 but for the indulgence of real sorrow, or contest upon questions 
 seriously momentous. Let us not throw away any of our days 
 upon useless resentment, or contend who shall hold out longest 
 in stubborn malignity. It is best not to be angry, and best, in 
 the next place, to be quickly reconciled. May you and your 
 father pass the remainder of your time in reciprocal benevo- 
 lence ! " 
 
 In December Mrs. Boswell presented her husband with a 
 second son, who was christened David. A delicate child, he 
 survived only a few months. 
 
 Writing to Dr. Johnson on the 8th July, 1777, Boswell 
 claims merit in having refrained from visiting London since the
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 115 
 
 spring of 1776, and proposes that the Doctor should meet him 
 at Carlisle, and from thence complete his tour of the English 
 cathedrals. To this proposal Johnson did not accede, but the 
 friends agreed to meet iu September at Ashbourne, in the 
 hospitable residence of Dr. Taylor. At this meeting Bos well 
 intimated his desire to obtain a permanent residence in London 
 as an English barrister. This scheme Dr. Johnson warmly- 
 disapproved, and entreated his companion to be satisfied with 
 his prospective advantages as a Scottish landowner. 
 
 In his more important legal causes Boswell had recourse to 
 Dr. Jolmson's assistance. At Ashbourne he asked help in a 
 case of importance. Joseph Knight, a negro, having been 
 brought to Jamaica in the usual course of the slave trade, was 
 purchased by a Scottish gentleman in the island, who afterwards 
 returned to Scotland. Soon after his arrival Knight claimed his 
 freedom, and brought an action to enforce it.* The case was 
 now pending, and Boswell induced Dr. Johnson to dictate an 
 argument on the negro's behalf. In recording it he is careful 
 to add that he was personally an upholder of the slave trade. 
 He writes : — 
 
 " I record Dr. Johnson's argument fairly upon this particular 
 case ; where, perhaps, he was in the right. But I beg leave to 
 enter my most solemn protest against his general doctrine with 
 respect to the slave trade. For I will resolutely say that his 
 unfavourable notion of it was owing to prejudice and imperfect 
 or false information. The wild and dangerous attempt which 
 has for some time been persisted in to obtain an Act of our 
 Legislature to abolish so very important and necessary a branch 
 of commercial interest must have been crushed at once, had 
 not the insignificance of the zealots, who vainly took the lead 
 in it, made the vast body of planters, merchants, and others, 
 whose immense properties are involved in that trade, reason- 
 
 * The negro gained his plc.i.
 
 116 MEMOIK OF JAMES BOS WELL. 
 
 ably enough suppose that there could be no danger. The en- 
 couragement which the attempt has received excites my wonder 
 and indignation; and though some men of superior abilities 
 have supported it, whether from a love of temporary popularity 
 when prosperous, or a love of general mischief when desperate, 
 my opinion is unshaken. To abolish a status which in all ages 
 God has sanctioned and man has continued, would not only be 
 robbery to an innumerable class of our fellow-subjects, but 
 it would be extreme cruelty to the African savages, a portion of 
 whom it saves from massacre, or intolerable bondage in their 
 own country, and introduces into a much happier state of life, 
 especially now when their passage to the West Indies, and 
 their treatment there, is humanely regulated. To abolish that 
 trade would be to — 
 
 " Shut the gates of mercy on mankind." 
 
 The political success of Edmund Burke induced Boswell to 
 indicate his readiness to co-operate with him in regard to the 
 American colonies. To Mr. Burke he wrote as follows : — 
 
 " Edinhurgh, March 3, 1778. 
 " Dear Sir, — Upon my honour I began a letter to you some 
 time ago, and did not finish it because I imagined you were then 
 near your a-ijothcosis, as poor Goldsmith said upon a former 
 occasion, when he thought your party was coming into adminis- 
 tration ; and being one of your old Barons of Scotland, my pride 
 could not brook the appearance of paying my court to a minister 
 amongst the crowd of interested expectants on his accession. 
 At present I take it for granted that I need be under no such 
 apprehension, and therefore I resume the indulgence of my 
 inclination. This may be perhaps a singular method of be- 
 ginning a correspondence ; and in one sense may not be very 
 coraplimentative. But I can sincerely assure you, dear sir, that 
 I feel and mean a genuine compliment to Mr. Burke himself. 
 It is generally thought no meanness to solicit the notice and 
 favour of a man in power ; and surely it is much less a mean- 
 ness to endeavour by honest means to have the honour and
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 117 
 
 pleasure of being on an agreeable footing with a man of superior 
 knowledge, abilities, and genius. 
 
 " I have to thank you for the obligations which you have 
 already conferred upon me by the welcome which I have, upon 
 repeated occasions, experienced under your roof. When I was 
 last in London you gave me a general invitation, which I value 
 more than a Treasury warrant : — an invitation to ' the feast of 
 reason,' and, what I like still more, ' the flow of soul,' which 
 you dispense with liberal and elegant abundance, is, in my 
 estimation, a privilege of enjoying certain felicity ; and we know 
 that riches and honour are desirable only as means to felicity, 
 and that they often fail of the end. 
 
 " Most heartily do I rejoice that our present ministers have at 
 last yielded to conciliation. For amidst all the sanguinary zeal 
 of my countrymen I have professed myself a friend to our 
 fellow-subjects in America, so far as they claim an exemption 
 from being taxed by the representatives of the King's British 
 subjects. I do not perfectly agree with you; for I deny the 
 Declaratory Act, and I am a warm Tory in its true constitu- 
 tional sense. I wish I were a commissioner, or one of the 
 secretaries of the commission for the grand treaty. I am to be 
 in London this spring, and if his Majesty should ask me what I 
 would choose, my answer will be, to assist in the compact 
 between }>ritain and America. May I beg to hear from you, 
 and in the meantime to have my compliments made acceptable 
 to Mrs. Burke ? — I am, dear sir, your most obedient, humble 
 
 servant, 
 
 "James Boswell."* 
 
 On the 18th March Boswell arrived in London, and at 
 once renewed his intercourse with Dr. Johnson. They spent 
 Good Friday together, Boswell accompanying the lexicographer 
 to mornino- and evening service in St. Clement's Church. Next 
 evening, while taking tea with him, Boswell severely experienced 
 
 * Correspondence of the Right Hon. Edmund Burke, edited by 
 Charles Earl Fitzwilliam. Loud., 4 vols., 1844, vol. ii , p. 207.
 
 118 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Dr. Johnson's resentment. The narrative we present in his own 
 words : — 
 
 " We talked of a gentleman (Mr. Langton) who was running 
 out his fortune in London, and I said, ' We must get him out 
 of it. All his friends must quarrel with him, and that will 
 soon drive him away.' Johnson: 'Nay, sir, we'll send you to 
 liim; if your company does not drive a man out of his house, 
 nothing will.' This was a horrible shock, for which there was 
 no visible cause. I afterwards asked him why he had said so 
 liarsh a thing. Johnson : ' Because, sir, you made me angry 
 about the Americans.' Boswell : ' But why did you not take 
 your revenge directly ? ' Johnson (smiling) : ' Because, sir, I 
 liad nothing ready. A man cannot strike till he has his weapons. 
 This," adds BosweU, " was a candid and pleasant confession." * 
 
 Dr. Johnson made a second attack a fortnight afterwards, 
 which Boswell endured with less patience. On the 2nd May 
 they met at Sir Joshua Eeynolds'. The wits of Queen Anne's 
 reign were talked of, when Boswell exclaimed, " How delightful 
 it must have been to have lived in the society of Pope, Swift, 
 Arbuthnot, Gay, and Bolingbroke ! We have no such society 
 in our days." Sir Joshua answered, " I think, Mr. Boswell, 
 you might be satisfied with your great friend's conversation." 
 " Nay, sir, Mr. Boswell is right," said Johnson, " every man 
 wishes for preferment, and if Boswell had lived in those days 
 he would have obtained promotion." " How so, sir ?" asked 
 Sir Joshua. " Why, sir," said Johnson, " he would have had 
 a high place in the Dunciad." Boswell felt so much hurt 
 that, contrary to his custom, he omits the conversation.f He 
 refers to the occurrence in these terms : — 
 
 * " Life of Johnson." 
 
 I Mr. Croker relates the anecdote on the authority of the Marquess 
 of Wellesley, who received it from ]\Ir. Thomas Sydenham. That 
 gentleman gcjt tlie story from Mr. Kniglit, to whom it was communi- 
 cated by Sir Joshua Eeynolds.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 119 
 
 "On Saturday, May 2, I dined with him at Sir Joshua 
 Reynolds's, when there was a very large company, and a great 
 deal of conversation ; but owing to some circumstance, which I 
 cannot now recollect, I have no record of any part of it, 
 except that there were several people there by no means of the 
 Johnsonian school, so that less attention was paid to him than 
 usual, which put him out of humour, and upon some imagi- 
 nary offence from me, he attacked me with such rudeness that I 
 was vexed and angry, because it gave those persons an oppor- 
 tunity of enlarging upon his supposed ferocity, and ill-treatment 
 of his best friends. I was so much hurt, and had my pride so 
 much roused, that I kept away from him for a week, and perhaps 
 might have kept away much longer, nay, gone to Scotland with- 
 out seeing him again, had we not fortunately met and been 
 reconciled." 
 
 The reconciliation is thus described : — 
 
 " On Friday, May 8, I dined with him at Mr. Langton's. I 
 was reserved and silent, which I supposed he perceived, and 
 might recollect the cause. After dinner, when Mr. Langton was 
 called out of the room and we were by ourselves, he drew his 
 chair near to mine and said, in a tone of conciliating courtesy, 
 'Well, how have you done ? ' Boswell : ' Sir, you have made me 
 very uneasy by your behaviour to me at Sir Joshua Eeynolds's.' 
 You know, my dear sir, no man has a greater respect and affec- 
 tion for you, or would sooner go to the end of the world to serve 
 you. Now to treat me so ' He insisted that I had inter- 
 rupted, which I assured him was not the case, and proceeded, 
 ' But why treat me so before people who neither love you nor 
 me ? ' ' Well, I'm sorry for it. I'll make it up to you twenty 
 different ways, as you please.' Boswell : ' I said to-day to Sir 
 Joshua, when he observed that you tossed me sometimes, I don't 
 care how often or how high he tosses me when only friends are 
 present, for then I fall upon soft ground ; but I do not like 
 falling on stones, which is the case when enemies are present. 
 I think this is a pretty good image, sir.' Johnson : ' Sir, it is one 
 of the happiest I have ever heard.' "
 
 120 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Boswell left London on the 19th of May. On his return to 
 Edinburc^h he was seized with an irrepressible longing for an 
 early settlement in London, and forthwith communicated his 
 sentiments to Br. Johnson. He had the following answer : — 
 
 " I wish you would a little correct or restrain your imagina- 
 tion, and imagine that happiness such as life admits may be had 
 at other places as well as London. Without affecting stoicism, 
 it may be said that it is our business to exempt ourselves as 
 much as we can from the power of external things. There is 
 but one solid basis of happiness, and that is, the reasonable hope 
 of a happy futurity. This may be had everywhere. I do not 
 blame your preference of London to other places, for it is really 
 to be preferred if the choice is free ; but few have the choice of 
 their place or their manner of life, and mere pleasure ought not 
 to be the prime motive of action." 
 
 In August Mrs. Boswell gave birth to her third son, who was 
 christened James. Dr. Johnson sent suitable congratulations. 
 
 In March, 1779, Boswell again repaired to the metropolis. He 
 spent Good Friday with Dr. Johnson, attending him at both 
 diets of worship in St. Clement's Church. Johnson, he relates, 
 preferred silent meditation during the interval of worship, and 
 for his improvement handed him " Les Pensees de Paschal," a 
 book which he perused with reverence. On Easter Sunday he 
 worshipped in St. Paul's, and afterwards diucd with Dr. Johnson. 
 
 A letter to Mr. Temple, which Boswell commenced at London 
 on the 31st ]\Iay, and finished at Newcastle on the 8th June, 
 contains the following passages : — 
 
 " Had you been in London last week, you would have seen 
 your friend sadly changed for a little. So trifling a matter as 
 letting the nails of my great toes grow into the flesh, particularly 
 in one foot, produced so much pain and inflannnation and lame- 
 ness and apprehension, that I was confined to bed, and my 
 spirits sank to dreary dejection. ... I am now nnich
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 121 
 
 better, but still unable to walk ; and having received a very wise 
 letter from my dear, sensible, valuable wife, that although my 
 father is in no immediate danger, his indisposition is such that I 
 ought to be with him, I have resolved to set out to-morrow, being 
 the very first day after completing another term at the Temple. 
 . . . Is it not curious that at times we are in so happy a 
 frame that not the least trace of former misery or vexation is 
 left upon the mind ? But is not the contrary, too, experienced ? 
 — Gracious Author of our being, do Thou bring us at length to 
 steady felicity. — What a strange, complicated scene is this 
 life ! It always strikes me that we cannot seriously, closely, 
 and clearly examine almost any part of it. We are at pains to 
 bring up children, just to give them an opportunity of struggling 
 through cares and fatigues ; but let us hope for gleams of joy 
 here, and a blaze hereafter. ... I got into the fly at 
 Buckden, and had a very good journey. An agreeable young 
 widow nursed me, and supported my lame foot on her knee. 
 Am I not fortunate in having something about me that interests 
 most people at first sight in my favour ? . . . You ask me 
 about Lowth's ' Isaiah.' I never once heard it mentioned till I 
 asked Dr. Johnson about it. ... I do not think Lowth an 
 engaging man ; I sat a good while with him this last spring. 
 He said Dr. Johnson had great genius, I give you this as a 
 specimen of his talk, which seemed to me to be neither dis- 
 criminating, pointed, nor animated ; yet he certainly has much 
 curious learning, and a good deal of critical sagacity. . . 
 I did not know Monboddo's new book, ' The Metaphysics of tlio 
 Ancients,' had been advertised, I expect it wili be found to be 
 a very wonderful performance. I think I gathered from a 
 conversation with him that he believes the ' metempsychosis.' " 
 
 On his arrival in Edinburgh, learning that the celebrated 
 Mr. John Wesley was on a visit to the city, Boswell waited on 
 him with a letter from Dr. Johnson, The writer expressed a 
 wish that " worthy and religious men should be acquainted with 
 each other." Mr. Wesley received Boswell with politeness, but 
 did not encourage any closer intimacy.
 
 122 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 For two months after his return to Scotland Boswell de- 
 spatched no letters to Dr. Johnson. He in this fashion made 
 trial of his friend's fidelity. At length receiving a letter 'from 
 the Doctor inquiring for his welfare, he resolved " never again to 
 put him to the test." * 
 
 The friendship which subsisted between Mrs. Boswell and 
 ]\Irs. Stuart, wife of the second son of John, thu'd Earl of Bute, 
 has been referred to. Boswell was, we have seen, also a favourite 
 with Mrs. Stuart. To her regard for him Boswell delighted to 
 refer, however, inopportunely. In his Boswdliana he relates 
 that Lord JNIountstuart having remarked that he resembled 
 Charles Fox, Colonel Stuart (Mrs. Stuart's husband) ejaculated, 
 " You are much uglier." Boswell replied, looking his tormentor 
 in the face, " Does your wife think so. Colonel James ? " 
 Colonel Stuart knew Boswell intimately, and, in common with 
 his wife, enjoyed his humour and excused his egotism. Being 
 in command of the Bedfordshire Militia, he invited Boswell to 
 accompany him and the regiment to London and some other 
 stations. Boswell readily complied. He delighted " to ac- 
 company a man of sterling good sense, information, discernment, 
 and conviviality," and he hoped in his society " to have a second 
 crop, in one year, of London and Johnson." 
 
 On Monday, 4th October, Boswell waited on Dr. Johnson, 
 thereafter attending him daily during a fortnight's residence in 
 Loudon. On the 18th October he departed for Chester, in 
 company with Colonel Stuart. He tarried a few hours at Lich- 
 field, where he visited some of Dr. Johnson's relatives. His 
 proceedings at Chester are related in the following letter to 
 jMr. Temple, dated Edinburgh, 4th January, 1780 :— 
 
 " From London, after an- excellent fortnight there, I accom- 
 * " Life of Johusou."
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 123 
 
 panied Colonel Stuart to Chester, to which town his regiment 
 was ordered from Leeds, and there I passed another fortnight in 
 mortal felicity. I had from my earliest years a love for the military 
 life, and there is in it an animation and relish of existence which 
 I have never found amongst any other set of men, except 
 players, with whom you know I once lived a great deal. At the 
 mess of Colonel Stuart's regiment I was quite the great man, as 
 we used to say ; and I was at the same time all joyous and gay. 
 Such was my home at Chester. But I had the good fortune to 
 be known to the bishop, who is one of the most distinguished 
 prelates for piety and eloquence, and one of the most pleasing 
 men in social life that you can imagine. His palace was open 
 to me, morning, noon, and night ; and I was liberally entertained 
 at his hospitable board. At Chester, too, I found Dean Smith, 
 the translator of ' Longinus,' with whom you and I were so well 
 acquainted when we were studying under Mr. John Stevenson. 
 I was surprised to find him, for I somehow had imagined that 
 he was an ancient English author, comparatively speaking. He 
 is very old, but is quite cheerful and full of anecdotes. He lives 
 very retired, with a disagreeable wife, and they told me I was 
 the only man who had been in the deanery for a long time. I 
 found too at Chester Mr. Falconer, a gentleman of fortune and 
 extraordinary learning and knowledge, who is preparing a new 
 edition of Strabo, at the desire of the University of Oxford ; he 
 was exceedingly obliging to me." 
 
 At Chester Boswell found the young ladies to be especially 
 charming. Forgetting that he and his correspondent were both 
 married, he informed Mr. Temple that several of the ladies 
 had " capital fortunes." He wrote to Dr. Jolmson that he had 
 complimented Miss Letitia Bainstou, niece of one of the prebend- 
 aries, in these words :— " I have come to Chester, madam, 1 
 cannot' tell how; and far less can I tell how I am able to get 
 away from it." In his journey from Chester to Scotland Boswell 
 lingered at Carlisle. He wrote to Dr. Johnson that he had 
 received the sacrament in the cathedral, and that it was " diviucly
 
 124 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 cheering to him that there was a cathedral so near Auchinleck." 
 Dr. Johnson reminded his correspondent that Carlisle cathedral 
 was at least one hundred and fifty miles from Auchinleck, 
 adding, " If you are pleased, it is so far well." 
 
 In the spring of 1777 Boswell obtained a connection with the 
 London Magazine. He then commenced in its pages a series of 
 papers, which he styled " The Hypochondriack." These papers 
 are generally short, and often disconnected ; they abound in allu- 
 sions to the writer's personal tastes and peculiar opinions, wliile 
 classical quotations are interspersed without point and without 
 purpose. But Boswell was pleased to see himself in print, and 
 so he complacently reports to Mr. Temple, in January, 1780, 
 that his " Hypochondriack gets on wonderfully well." In his 
 paper for March, 1780, he thus alludes to his love of dissipa- 
 tion : — 
 
 " I do fairly acknowledge," he writes, " that I love drinking ; 
 that I have a constitutional inclination to indulge in fermented 
 liquors, and that were it not for the restraints of reason and 
 religion, I am afraid I should be as constant a votary of 
 Bacchus as any man."* 
 
 At the close of his letter of January he informs Mr. Temple 
 that his father had been ill of fever, witli his pulse at ninety- 
 five ; he then begs a loan of £200, to satisfy a demand which 
 his father could not be informed of. The loan was not granted, 
 and Boswell afterwards sought repayment of an advance made to 
 his friend at a former period, and which remained undischarged. 
 
 In September Boswell experienced a family loss in the death of 
 Dr. John Boswell, his father's brother. Of his deceased relative 
 he writes to Mr. Temple that he was " a good scholar and affec- 
 
 * Tliroughout these papers Boswell adopts his peculiar system of 
 orthography, presenting judrjemeiit for judgment, auihour for author, 
 em})aniiacl for eiupanuel.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 125 
 
 tionate relative," but " had no conduct." He adds, " He had a 
 strange kind of religion, but I flatter myself he will be ere long, 
 if he is not already in heaven," This passage might imply 
 that in abandoning the Eomish faith he had not abjured the 
 doctrine of purgatory ; yet that doctrine is inconsistent with the 
 following aspiration contained in the same letter : — 
 
 ^ " I comfort myself with the Christian revelation of our being 
 in a state of purification, and that we shall, in course of time, 
 attain to felicity. It is delightful. Temple, to look forward to 
 the period when you and I shall enjoy what we now imagine. 
 In the meantime let us be patient, and do what we can." 
 
 Writing to Mr. Temple in November, Boswell thus refers to an 
 unpleasantness which had for some months subsisted between 
 him and his father : — 
 
 " I could not help smiling at the expostulation whicli you 
 suggest to me to try with my father. It would do admirably 
 with some fathers, but it would make mine much worse, for he 
 cannot bear that his son should talk with him as a man. I can 
 only lament his unmelting coldness to my wife and children, for 
 I fear it is hopeless to think of his ever being more affectionate 
 towards tliem. Yet it must be acknowledged that his paying 
 £1,000 of my debt some years ago was a large bounty. He 
 allows me £300 a year ; but I find that what I gain by my 
 practice and that sum together will not support my family. I 
 have now two sons and three daughters. I am in hopes that my 
 father will augment my allowance to £400 a year. I was indeed 
 very imprudent in expressing my extreme aversion to his second 
 marriage ; but since it took place I am conscious of having be- 
 haved to himself and his lady with such respectful attention, and 
 imposed such restraint upon myself as is tridy meritorious. The 
 woman is very implacable, and I imagine it is hardly possible 
 that she can ever be my friend. She, however, behaves much 
 better to the children than their grandfather does. We are all 
 to dine at my father's to-day ; he is better now than he has been 
 for several years."
 
 126 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 Ill thus writing Boswell lacked candour. Had he chosen to 
 observe liis usual frankness he would not have heaped censure 
 on his father's wife, but attributed the paternal resentment to 
 its true cause — the payment of that sum of £200 which 
 Mr. Temple had declined to lend. His correspondent's advice 
 respecting the plan for a London settlement was, for the time 
 not unacceptable. On this subject he writes : — 
 
 "Your counsel to me to set my mind at rest, and be content 
 with promotion in Scotland, is, I believe, very wise. ]\Iy brother 
 David enforced it earnestly. If my father lives a few years 
 longer, age will, I suppose, fix me here without any question ; 
 for to embark in a new sphere when one is much after forty is 
 not advisable. Yet, my dear Temple, ambition to be in Parlia- 
 ment or in the metropolis is very allowable. Perhaps my 
 exalted notions of public situation are fallacious, for I begin to 
 think that true elevation is to be acquu'ed from study and 
 thinking, and that when one is used to the most eminent 
 situations they become familiar and insipid, and perhaps 
 vexatious." 
 
 The embarrassed condition of his affairs kept Boswell in Scot- 
 land during the whole of 1780. In March, 1781, he agam pre- 
 sented himself in London. Good Friday was, as usual, spent 
 with Dr. Johnson, the friends worshipping together in St. 
 Clement's church. On Easter Sunday he performed his wonted 
 devotions in St. Paul's Cathedral. Not long afterwards he 
 afforded sad evidence of persistent recklessness. Dining with the 
 Duke of Montrose, he became inebriated, and in this condition 
 joined an evening party at the Honourable Miss Monckton's. 
 He talked incoherently, and Dr. Johnson, who was present, 
 endeavoured to shield him from observation.* Next, day being 
 
 * The Honourable Mary Monckton was youngest daughter of Jolm, 
 first Viscount Galway. She mamed, on tlie 17th January, 178G, 
 Edmund, seventh Earl of Cork ; she died in 18-10.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 127 
 
 made conscious of his lamentable aberration, he despatched to 
 his hostess the following verses as an apology for violating good 
 manners : — 
 
 " Not that with th' excellent Montrose 
 I had the happiness to dine ; 
 Not that I late from table rose, 
 
 From Graham's wit, from generous wine ; 
 
 *' It was not these alone which led 
 On sacred manners to encroach, 
 And made me feel what most I dread, 
 Johnson's just frown and self-reproach : 
 
 " But when I entered, not abashed, 
 
 From your bright eyes were shot such rays, 
 At once intoxication flashed, 
 And all my frame was in a blaze. 
 
 " But not a brilliant blaze, I own ; 
 
 Of the dull smoke I'm yet ashamed, 
 I was a dreary ruin grown. 
 And not enlightened, though enflamed. 
 
 " Victim at once to wine and love, 
 I hope, Maria, you'll forgive ; 
 While I invoke the powers above, 
 That henceforth I may wiser live." 
 
 Boswell remained in London till the beginning of June. En 
 route for Scotland, he accompanied Dr. Johnson to Southill, 
 Bedfordshiie, on a visit to Mr. Charles Dilly, publisher, who had 
 there established his country seat. The friends reached Southill 
 on Saturday, the 2nd June. Next day they accompanied Mr. 
 Dilly's family to the parish church. Boswell remained behind to 
 receive the sacrament. During the evening he sought religious 
 conversation with Dr. Johnson, commencing thus :— " My dear 
 sir, I would fain be a good man ; and I am very good now. I 
 fear God and honour the king ; I wish to do no ill, and to be
 
 128 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 benevolent to all mankind." Dr. Johnson said impressions were 
 deceitM and dangerous, and explained the nature of the Chris- 
 tian atonement. Boswell requested him to repeat his remarks, 
 and proceeded to record them.* 
 
 Neglecting the practice of his profession, Boswell became 
 wholly dependent on his allowance from Lord Auchinleck, and 
 again ran himself aground. He explained his condition to Dr. 
 Johnson as a reason why he could not visit London in the 
 spring of 1782, adding that could he possibly reach the metro- 
 polis, he might obtain a post which would restore his fortunes. 
 Dr. Johnson replied as follows : — 
 
 "To come hither with such expectations at the expense of 
 borrowed money, which I find you know not where to borrow, 
 can hardly be considered prudent. I am sorry to find, what 
 your solicitations seem to imply, that you have already gone the 
 length of your credit. This is to set the quiet of your whole 
 life at hazard. If you anticipate your inheritance, you can at 
 last inherit nothing ; all that you receive must pay for the past. 
 You must get a place, or pine in penury, with the empty name 
 of a great estate. Poverty, my dear friend, is so great an evil, 
 and pregnant with so much temptation, and so much misery, 
 that I cannot but earnestly enjoin you to avoid it. Live on 
 what you have ; live if you can on less ; do not borrow either 
 for vanity or pleasure ; the vanity will end in shame, and the 
 pleasure in regret ; stay therefore at home till you have saved 
 money for your journey hither," 
 
 In a letter written some months subsequently, Johnson 
 resumed his discourse on the miseries of improvidence : — 
 
 " Whatever might have been your pleasure or mine, I know 
 not how I could have honestly advised you to come hither with 
 boiTOwed money. Do not accustom yourself to consider debt 
 only as an inconvenience ; you will find it a calamity. Poverty 
 takes away so many means of doing good, and produces so much 
 
 * " Life of Johnson. "
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 129 
 
 inability to resist evil, both natural and moral, that it is by all 
 virtuous means to be avoided. Consider a man whose fortune 
 is very narrow ; whatever be his rank by birth, or whatever his 
 reputation by intellectual excellence, what can he do, or what 
 evil can he prevent ? That he cannot help the needy is evident ; 
 he has nothing to spare. But perhaps his advice or admonition 
 may be useful. His poverty will destroy his influence ; many 
 more can find that he is poor than that he is wise ; and few will 
 reverence the understanding that is of so little advantage to its 
 owner. I say nothing of the personal wretchedness of a debtor, 
 which, however, has passed into a proverb." 
 
 After a long illness, patiently borne, Lord Auchinleck died at 
 Edinburgh on the 31st August. He had settled on his eldest 
 son the ancestral estate, with an unencumbered rental of £1,G00 
 a year. On receipt of the tidings, Dr. Johnson wrote to Boswell 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Your father's death had every circumstance that could 
 enable you to bear it ; it was at a mature age, and it was 
 expected ; and as his general life had been pious, his thoughts 
 had doubtless for many years past been turned upon eternity. 
 That you did not find him sensible must doubtless grieve you ; 
 his disposition towards you was undoubtedly that of a kind, 
 though not of a fond father. Kindness, at least actital, is in our 
 power, but fondness is not ; and if by negligence or imprudence 
 you had extinguished his fondness, he could not at will rekindle 
 it. Nothing then remained for you but mutual forgiveness of 
 each other's faults, and mutual desire of each other's happiness. 
 I shall long to know his final disposition of his fortune." 
 
 At Auchinleck the deceased judge was deeply revered. In 
 the Kirk-Session Eecords of that parish, Mr. David Murdoch,* 
 schoolmaster and session clerk, has accompanied the entry of his 
 death with the following lines, entitled" Essay towards a character 
 of Lord Auchinleck : " — 
 
 * This gentleman was, we believe, father of JVlr. John Murdoch, 
 the first and most efficient instructor of tlie poet Burns. 
 
 K
 
 130 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 *' For every sovereign virtue much renowned, 
 Of judgment steady, and in wisdom sound, 
 Through a long life in active bus'ness spent, 
 For justice and for prudence eminent ; 
 Well qualified to occupy the line 
 Allotted him by Providence divine ; 
 Employed with indefatigable pains 
 In very num'rous and important scenes ; 
 And as his fame for justice was well known. 
 His clemency no less conspicuous shone ; 
 Reliever of the needful and opprest, 
 The gen'rous benefactor of distrest, 
 Ready to hear and rectify a wrong, 
 To re-establish harmony among 
 Contending friends, or such as disagreed. 
 And of his interposing aid had need ; 
 Successfully he laboured much and long 
 As healer of the breaches us among ; 
 And still from jarring order brought about, 
 Carefully searching unknown causes out. 
 
 A foe to vice, detesting liars much, 
 Of shrewd acuteness in discerning such ; 
 Averse to flattery, hating all deceit. 
 Though in resentment mod'rate and discreet ; 
 And ready still, with sympathizing grace, 
 To wipe the tear from every mourning face. 
 "Whether we see him talking at the Bar, 
 Or on the Bench, a step exalted far. 
 Display the spirit of his country's laws. 
 Or ruminate the merits of a cause ; 
 Or in retirement from such legal strife 
 View him a gentleman in private life, — 
 In all connections, and in him we find 
 The husband loving and the parent kind, 
 The easy master and the faithful friend. 
 The honest counsellor, as all will own. 
 And most indulgent landlord ever known. 
 In all departments on the earthly stage. 
 In every scene in which he did engage.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 131 
 
 Such steadiness, such truth and candour slione, 
 As equalled is by few, surpassed by none ; 
 In everything important less or more, 
 Supporting well the character he bore. 
 
 A person thus disposed and thus endowed 
 Must have been universally allowed 
 The tribute of our praises heretofore, 
 And claims our tears when now he is no more. 
 All ranks in iiim a mighty loss sustain, 
 Both rich and poor, the noble and the mean ; 
 For why 1 his services did far extend 
 Through town and country to the kingdom's end ; 
 The whole to him in obligations bound, 
 As to his honour ever will redound. 
 
 Revere his memory, and his death lament, 
 As well becomes, with uniform assent ; 
 Your high concern by loud encomiums show, 
 Unite the shout of praise and tear of woe ; 
 Your warm effusions only can reveal 
 (And faintly too) what every heart must feel. 
 
 This benefactor lost, the meaner man 
 May quiver, and so he AviU, that's all he can ; 
 Let those descended of a station higher. 
 To imitate his virtuous life aspire ; 
 Transcribe the bright example set by him. 
 Best way to evidence their true esteem. 
 May after generations who succeed, 
 From Register, his famed remembrance read. 
 Alive his character afar was known. 
 So may it long continue when he's gone ; 
 And let the undissembled voice of fame 
 To distant ages celebrate his name — 
 A name of veneration and respect, 
 Of honour and esteem, Lord Auchinleck." 
 
 On Friday, the 21st March, 1783, Boswell arrived in London. 
 He found Dr. Johnson at Mrs. Thrale's in feeble health. As on 
 former occasions, the friends worshipped together in St. Clement's 
 Church on Good Friday, while Boswell again kept Easter in
 
 132 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 St. Paul's. When congratulating his friend on his position as a 
 landowner, Dr. Johnson unsparingly exposed his egotism. 
 " Boswell," said he, " you often vaunt so much, as to provoke 
 ridicula You put me in mind of a man who was standing in the 
 kitchen of an inn with his back to the fire, and thus accosted the 
 person next him: — 'Do you know, sir, who I am ? ' 'No, 
 sir, said the other, ' I have not that advantage.' ' Sir,' said he, 
 ' I am the great Tw^amley, who invented the new floodgate 
 iron.'"* 
 
 Boswell left London for Scotland on the 29th of May. From 
 Dr. Johnson he received these parting counsels : — " Get as much 
 force of mind as you can. Live within your income. Always 
 have something saved at the end of the year. Let your imports 
 be more than your exports, and you'll never go far wrong." 
 
 On the opening of Parliament in November, 1783, Mr. Fox intro- 
 duced in the House of Commons his celebrated East India Bill. By 
 this measure he proposed to vest the Government of India for five 
 years, in a commission of seven, who were to be appointed by Par- 
 liament, and to be irremovable by the Crown. The Bill was ac- 
 cepted by the Commons, but was, on the 17th December, rejected 
 in the Upper House, through the influence of the King. The rejec- 
 tion of this measure compelled the coalition ministry to resign, and 
 Mr. Pitt became Prime Minister on the understandinfj that he 
 would appeal to the country without loss of time. Having 
 become a landowner, Boswell conceived himself a fit candidate 
 for parliamentary honours, and in prospect of a dissolution 
 resolved to offer his services to a constituency. He published a 
 pamphlet entitled " A Letter to the People of Scotland on the 
 Present State of the Nation" (43 pp. 12mo.). In this composi- 
 tion he denounces Mr. Fox's India Bill as " an attempt to deprive 
 
 * A Mr. Twaniley inventerl a kind of box-iron for smoothing linen.
 
 MEMOIK OF JAMES BOSWELL, 133 
 
 the sovereign of his lawful authority ;" and urges " his fellow- 
 countrymen in their several counties " to express their satisfac- 
 tion that the BHl had been rejected by the Lords. He celebrates 
 the memory of Sir John Lowther, ancestor of Lord Lowther,* 
 who had lately promised him support. Then, passing to his 
 favourite theme, he announces himself as "a firm loyalist, 
 holding an estate transmitted to him hy charters from a 
 series of kings." He concludes by the olfer of parliamentary 
 service. His composition he transmitted to Dr. Johnson ben-f^inf 
 liis opinion. The lexicographer was in declining health, and 
 was proportionally amiable. He complimented the writer on 
 his knowledge of constitutional history, adding that his pamphlet 
 would " raise his character, though it might not make him a 
 Minister of State." ]\Ir. Pitt sent a polite acknowledgment, 
 commending " the author's zeal in the cause of the public." 
 
 His " Letter to the People of Scotland " Boswell followed up 
 by the following address to the Ayrshire constituency : — 
 
 " To the Real Freeholders of the County of Ayr. 
 
 " Gentlemen, — If my friend Colonel Montgomerie shall not 
 be a candidate at the next election, I intend to offer my services 
 as your representative in Parliament. If Colonel Montgomerie 
 stands, he shall have my warmest support; for I have never 
 ceased to think that great injustice was done both to you and 
 him when he was deprived of the seat given him by your 
 voice ; and I am very desirous to liave ample reparation made 
 for that injustice. Indeed, gentlemen, you have at tlie two 
 last general elections been disappointed of your representation 
 by the unconstitutional means of those votes, which, upon a 
 
 * Lord Lowther was son-in-law of the Earl of Bute, and brother-in- 
 law of Boswell's friend, Colonel Stuart. Boswell's relations with 
 this influential nobleman will form a prominent feature in the 
 subsequent narrative.
 
 13-i MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 notice that I glory in having made, were, at a meeting of tliis 
 county, 29th October, 1782, declared to be nominal and 
 fictitious. 
 
 " Colonel Montgomerie and I will probably at no time be 
 on different sides. We are both connected with the respectable 
 old interest of the county; and I trust we should both be 
 exceedingly sorry to hurt it by a division, of which its enemies 
 are eagerly watchful to take advantage. 
 
 " I pledge my word and honour that if there is not a greater 
 number of the real freeholders for me than for any other can- 
 didate, I shall retire from the contest, I disdain to avail myself 
 of what 1 condemn ; and I am not callous enough to bear the 
 indignant and reproachful looks of my worthy neighbours, who 
 would consider that, by an artful use of the letter of that law 
 which so loudly calls for reformation, I had triumphed over 
 their wishes, and annihilated their most valuable privileges. 
 
 " My political principles I have avowed, in the most direct 
 and public manner, to be those of a steady Eoyalist, who 
 reveres monarchy, but is at the same time animated with 
 genuine feelings of liberty ; principles which, when well under- 
 stood, are not in any degree inconsistent, but are happily 
 united in the true British Constitution. 
 
 " The confidences with which I have been honoured by many 
 of you in my profession as a lawyer, and other marks of 
 attention which you have been pleased to show me, emboldens 
 me to believe that you think well of my integrity and abilities. 
 On the other hand, I declare that I should pay the utmost 
 deference to your instructions as my constituents ; and as I am 
 now the representative of a family which has held an estate 
 in the county, and maintained a respectable character for 
 almost three centuries, I Hatter myself that I shall not be 
 reckoned too presumptuous when I aspire to the high distinc- 
 tion of being your representative in Parliament, and that you 
 will not disapprove of my indulging an ambition that this 
 family shall rather advance than fall off in my time. 
 
 " Though I should not be successful at the next, or at any 
 future election, T am so fortunate as to have resources enough
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 135 
 
 to prevent rae from being discontented or fretful on that 
 account ; and I shall ever be, with cordial regard, 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 "Your very faithful, and most obedient, humble servant, 
 
 "James Boswell, 
 " AiochinlecJc, March 17, 1784." 
 
 Boswell was at York on the 28th March, 1784, en route for 
 London, when he was informed that Parliament was dissolved. 
 Having in a brief note intimated to Dr. Johnson his political as- 
 pirations, he posted to Ayrshire, to contest the county. From 
 Johnson he received a letter entreating him to be " scrupu- 
 lous in the use of strong liquors," as " one night's drunkenness 
 might defeat the labour of forty days well employed." 
 
 On reaching Auchinleck, Boswell learned what he might 
 have ascertained sooner, that Colonel Montgomerie was 
 re-soliciting the suffrages of the constituency. He was 
 the successful candidate. Boswell again proceeded southward, 
 and on the 5th May reached London. He dined out almost 
 daily, frequently meeting Dr. Johnson, who though an 
 invalid, rejoiced in the intercourse of his friends. By his 
 physicians Johnson had been advised to proceed to Italy, and 
 as the journey was delayed, Boswell apprehended that his friend 
 was suffering from lack of funds. He applied to Lord Chan- 
 cellor Thurlow, entreating an augmentation of Johnsons pension, 
 or a special grant for the Italian journey. To the Treasury the 
 Chancellor presented the application, but it was not entertained. 
 Dr. Johnson expressed his grateful sense of Boswell's considera- 
 tion and enterprise. 
 
 After a period of severe suffering, Dr. Johnson expired on tlie 
 13th December, 1784. He had prepared an autobiograpliy, but 
 destroyed it, with a portion of his correspondence, some weeks
 
 136 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 before his decease. He appointed no literary executor, nor left 
 instructions respecting a memoir. Boswell contemplated a different 
 result, but did not publicly complain. From respect to Johnson's 
 wishes he had abstained from publishing his Hebridean tour. He 
 now seriously employed himself in preparing it for the printer. As 
 the first proof-sheet was being sent him from Mr, Baldwin's print- 
 ing office, it happened to attract the attention of Mr. Edmund 
 Malone, who proceeded to read the account of Dr. Johnson's 
 character. He was struck with the fidelity of the representation, 
 and begged Mr. Baldwin to introduce him to the writer.* 
 Boswell rejoiced to cultivate the acquaintance of one who not 
 only belonged to Dr. Johnson's circle, but was himself a cele- 
 brity, as editor of Goldsmith's works, and as a writer on 
 Shakespeare's plays.-f He visited Mr. Malone almost daily, 
 submitting to his revision the MS. of his work. Accompanied 
 by a flattering dedication to Mr. Malone, the work appeared in 
 1786 as a bulky octavo, bearing on the title-page the following 
 copious inscription : — 
 
 " The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides, with Samuel Johnson, 
 
 LL.D., by James Boswell, Esq., containing some poetical pieces 
 
 by Dr. Johnson, relative to the Tour, and never before published : 
 
 a series of his conversation. Literary Anecdotes, and Opinions of 
 
 Men and Books, with an authenticlc account of the Distresses 
 
 and Escape of the Grandson of King James II. in the year 
 
 1746. 
 
 ' ! while along the stream of time, thy naiuc 
 
 Expanded flieiJ, and gathers all its fame, 
 Say, shall my little book attendant sail, 
 Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale ]' 
 
 " Pope." 
 
 * Life of Edmund Malone, by James Boswell, jun., contributed to 
 the GentUman's Mayazine, and reprinted for private circulation. 
 
 t Mr. Malone published in 1778 his " Attempt to ascertain the order 
 in which Shakespeare's Plays were written ''
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 137 
 
 Above the imprint was placed a small woodcut representing 
 a falcon — the author's crest, with his family motto, vraye foy. 
 The work was published by Mr. Charles Dilly, and the edition 
 was rapidly distributed. The author was thus commended by 
 Mr. Courtenay in his " Poetical Eeview : " * — 
 
 " With Reynolds' pencil, vivid, bold and true 
 So fervent Boswell gives him to our view : 
 In every trait we see his mind expand ; 
 The master rises by the pupd's hand : 
 We love the writer, praise liis happy vein. 
 Graced with the naivete of the sage Montaigne ; 
 Kence not alone are brighter parts display'd. 
 But e'en the specks of character portray'd : 
 We see the ' Eambler ' with fastidious smile 
 Mark the lone tree, and note the heath-clad isle ; 
 But when the heroic tale of ' Flora 't charms, 
 Deck'd in a kilt, he wields a chieftain's arms ; 
 The tuneful piper sounds a martial strain, 
 . And Samuel sings ' The King shall have his ain.' 
 * * * * 
 
 " Can Boswell be forgot. 
 Scarce by !N"orth Britons now esteem'd a Scot ? 
 Who to the sage devoted from his youth 
 Imbib'd from him the sacred love of truth ; 
 The keen research, the exercise of mind. 
 And that best art, the art to know mankind." 
 
 Much as his performance was appreciated by friendly persons, 
 it was impossible that Bos well's morbed egotism should escape 
 ridicule. Thomas Eowlandson, the noted caricaturist, issued 
 twenty cartoons, presenting the unguarded tourist in absurd and 
 
 * A Poetical Review of the Literary and Moral Character of the 
 late Samuel Johnson, LL.D., with Notes by John Courtciiay, Es<]. 
 Lond.: C. Dilly, 178G. 
 
 f The celebrated Flora Macdonakl.
 
 138 MI::.MOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL.. 
 
 grotesque scenes and attitudes, founded on descriptions in his 
 book. They were phiced in the shop windows and hawked 
 about the streets, while the hxughter-rousing Peter Pindar * 
 addressed Boswell in a " Poetical and Congratulatory Epistle," 
 mercilessly castigating him in sarcastic and crushing rhymes. 
 Here is a specimen : — 
 
 " At length, ambitious Thane, thy rage 
 To give one spark to Fame's bespangled page 
 Is amply gratified. A thousand eyes 
 Survey thy book with rapture and surprize ! 
 Loud of thy tour, a thousand tongues have spoken, 
 And wonder'd that thy bones Avere never broken. 
 
 Kay, though thy Johnson ne'er had bless'd thine eyes, 
 Paoli's deeds had rais'd thee to the skies ; 
 Yes ! his broad wing had rais'd thee (no bad luck) 
 A tomtit twitt'ring on an eagle's back." 
 
 Equally pungent was the savage Pindar in a subsequent poem, 
 entitled " Bozzy and Piozzi." He wrote : — 
 
 " For thee, James Boswell, may the hand of Fate 
 Arrest thy goose-quill and confine thy prate ! 
 Thine egotism the world disgusted hears — 
 Then load Avith vanities no more our ears. 
 Like some lone puppy, yelping all night long, 
 That tires the very echoes with his tongue. 
 Yet, should it lie beyond the pow'rs of Fate 
 To stop thy pen, and still thy darling prate ; 
 To live in solitude, oh ! be thy luck 
 A chattering magpie on the Isle of Muck." 
 
 Than the shafts of ridicule, Boswell experienced even more 
 substantial discomfort. Ptespecting Sir Alexander Macdonald, 
 
 * The pseudonym of Dr. John Wolcott, the eminent satirist.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 139 
 
 Bart., cliief of the Macdonalds, he had written thus un- 
 guardedly : — 
 
 " Instead of finding the head of the Macdonalds surrounded 
 with his clan, and a festive entertainment, we had a small com- 
 pany, and cannot boast of our cheer. The particulars are 
 minuted in my Journal, but I shall not trouble the publick 
 with them. I shall mention but one characteristick circumstance. 
 My shrewd and hearty friend Sir Thomas (Wentworth) Blacket, 
 Lady Macdonald's uncle, who had preceded us on a visit to this 
 chief, upon being asked by him if the punch-bowl then upon the 
 table was not a very handsome one, replied, ' Yes, — if it were 
 full,' Sir Alexander Macdonald having been an Eton scholar. 
 Dr. Johnson had formed an opinion of him which was much 
 diminished when he beheld him in the Isle of Sky, where we 
 heard heavy complaints of rents racked, and the people driven 
 to emigration. Dr. Johnson said, ' It grieves me to see the 
 chief of a great clan appear to such disadvantage. This gentle- 
 man has talents, nay, some learning ; but he is totally untit for 
 this situation. Sir, the Highland chiefs should not be allowed 
 to go farther south than Aberdeen. A strong-minded man, like 
 his brother Sir James, may be improved by an English education, 
 but in general they will be turned into insignificance.' I 
 meditated an escape from this house the very next day ; but 
 Dr. Johnson resolved that we should weather it out till Monday." 
 
 In charging the chief of the Macdonalds with an unwarrantable 
 parsimony, Boswell is justified in a letter written by Dr. Johnson 
 to Mrs. Thrale.* But he evinced his wonted imprudence in 
 
 * From the Hebrides Dr. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale in tliese 
 
 terms : " We had a passage of about twelve miles to the point where 
 
 Sir Alexander Macdonald resided, having come from his seat, m the 
 middle of the island, to a small house on the shore, as we believe, that 
 he might with less reproach entertain us meanly. If he aspired to 
 meanness, his retrograde ambition was completely gratified ; but he 
 did not succeed equally in escaping reproach. He had no cook, nor I 
 suppose much provision ; nor had the lady the common decencies of
 
 140 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 making public wliat had better have been concealed, and in 
 dragging into the controversy Sir Thomas Blacket, a near relative 
 of Sir Alexander's wife.* Both baronets made loud complaint, 
 and the chief of the Macdonalds spoke of vengeance by personal 
 chastisement. To this threat Peter Pindar thus pungently 
 alludes : — 
 
 t " Let Lord Macdonald threat thy breech to kick, 
 And o'er thy shrinking shouldors shake his stick ; 
 Treat with contempt the menace of this Lord, 
 'Tis Hist'ry's province, Bozzy, to record." 
 
 The displeasure which Boswell had excited was appeased by 
 a compromise. He agreed in his next edition to exclude Blacket's 
 anecdote, and to substitute allusion to Macdonald's shabbiness 
 by quoting his Latin verses, welcoming the lexicographer to Sky. 
 
 In 1786 Boswell executed his Will, and it seems probable that 
 " the apprehension of danger to his life " J to which in that 
 document he refers was due to the menace of the Highland 
 chief. If this conjecture is well founded, it is interesting to 
 
 her tea-table ; we picked up our sugar with our fingers. Boswell 
 was very angry, and reproached him with his improper parsimony. 
 . . . I have done thinking of Sir Alexander Macdonald, wliom we 
 now call Sir Sawney ; he has disgusted all mankind by injudicious 
 parsimony, and given occasion to so many stories, that Boswell has 
 some thoughts of collecting them, and making a novel of his life." 
 (Letters to Mrs. Thrale, vol. i., p. 137.) 
 
 * Lady Macdonald, nee Elizabeth Liana Bosville, was a member of 
 the eldest branch of the Boswell family, and was one of those gentle- 
 women to whom early in life l^oswell thought of offering liis hand (see 
 page 67). Daughter of Godfrey Bosville, Esq., of Guntliwaite, 
 Yorkshire, she married Sir Alexander Macdonald in 1768. 
 
 t Sir Alexander Macdonald, Bart., Avas raised to the peerage, as 
 Baron Macdonald of .Slate, on the 17th July, 1776. 
 
 + Hee postea.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWKLL. 141 
 
 remark that Boswell especially provides that his own tenantry 
 should in the matter of rent be treated with leniency. 
 
 In the preface to his third edition, issued in 1786, Boswell 
 vigorously denounces his critics on both sides the Tweed. His 
 Scottish compeers, he alleges, have displayed " a petty national 
 spirit unworthy of his countrymen." The English critics are 
 styled " shallow and envious cavillers." In opposition to their 
 assertions that he has lessened Dr. Johnson's character, he 
 maintains that he was assured by persons of taste that he had 
 greatly heightened it. He appeals to the judgment of posterity. 
 
 Elated by his popularity as a tourist, he determined to re- 
 assert his political pretensions. An opportunity for display- 
 ing patriotic ardour seasonably occurred. A Bill was in- 
 troduced into the House of Commons by Mr. Islay Camp- 
 bell, the Lord Advocate, and Mr. Dundas, Dean of Faculty, 
 for reconstructing the Court of Session. By this Bill it was 
 proposed to reduce the judges from fifteen to ten, and 
 with the funds secured by the reduction to augment the 
 salaries of those who remained. In opposition to this 
 measure Boswell issued a pamphlet, sensationally entitled " A 
 Letter to the People of Scotland on the alarming attempt to 
 infringe the Articles of Union, and introduce a most pernicious 
 innovation, by diminishing the number of the Lords of Session." 
 This composition, extending to 107 octavo pages, was published 
 by Dilly, and sold for half a crovm. There were few sales, but 
 copies of the pamphlet were presented to the author's friends.* 
 
 * In the Library of the British J.Iuseiun is contained a copy of the 
 pamphlet which belonged to Mr. Wilkes. In Boswell's handwriting 
 it is thus inscribed : — 
 
 " Comes jucundus in via pro vehiculo est. 
 
 " To John "Wilkes, Esq., as pleasant a companion as ever lived. 
 
 " From the Autlior. 
 <« , . . Will my Wilkes retreat, 
 
 And see, once seen before, that ancient seat," &c.
 
 142 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 In his characteristic manner Boswell sets forth that the number 
 of judges was fixed unalterably by the Act of Union, " an Act 
 which, entering into the constitution of Parliament itself, Parlia- 
 ment dare not alter." The number of fifteen was declared by 
 George Buchanan to be small enough to avoid the character of a 
 tyrannical junto.— " Is a court often," he proceeds, "the same with 
 a court of fifteen ? Is a two-legged animal the same with a four- 
 legged animal ? I know nobody who will gravely defend that 
 proposition, except one grotesque philosopher, whom ludicrous 
 fable represents as going about avowing his hunger, and wagging 
 his tail, fain to become cannibal and eat his deceased 
 brethren." * Lords of Session, he argues, do the work of English 
 juries in civil cases, and exercise the functions of English Grand 
 Juries. Mr. Dundas he denounces as " Harry the Ninth," and 
 Mr. Islay Campbell is censured, though less abusively. Boswell 
 next introduces himself, and proceeds to expatiate on his personal 
 merits. He had in his previous letter " kindled the fire of 
 loyalty and saved the constitution." He is "a true patriot," 
 and begs that he may not be misunderstood by associating with 
 Mr. Wilkes, " he being so pleasant," and an " old classical com- 
 panion." He declares himself a scholar and a gentleman — " a 
 scholar," as he is familiar with Latin authors ; and a gentleman, 
 "since his friends were persons of title and influence." His 
 wife, whom " he loved as dearly as when slie gave him her 
 hand," is " a relation of Lord Eglinton, a true jMontgomery." 
 The M.P. for Plymouth, Captain Macbride, is " the cousin of 
 
 * This satirical allusion to Lord Monboddo is conceived in the very 
 worst taste. His lordsliip had shown marked attention to Boswell in 
 liis youth, and had entertained him and Dr. Johnson at Monboddo, 
 during the progress of their tour. Latteily his lordship and Dr. 
 Johnson had differed, and probably on this account Boswell con- 
 sidered himself entitled to make this offensive allusion to his philoso- 
 phical o])inions.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 14:', 
 
 his wife, and the friend of his heart." His intimate friend, 
 Colonel Stuart, has " sterling good sense, information, discern- 
 ment, honour, honesty, and spirit." Lord Lowther is apostro- 
 phised thus : — 
 
 "Let not the Scottish spirit be bowed. Let Lowther come 
 forth and support us. We are his neighbours. Paries proximvs 
 ardet. We all know what he can do. He upon whom the 
 thousands of Whitehaven depend for three of the elements. He 
 whose soul is all great ; whose resentment is terrible, but whose 
 liberality is boundless. I know that he is dignified by having hosts 
 of enemies ; but I have fixed his character in my mind upon no 
 slight inquiry. I have traversed Cumberland and Westmore- 
 land ; I have sojourned at Carlisle and at Kendal ; I know of the 
 Lonsdale Club at Lancaster. Lowther! be kindly interested. 
 Come over to Macedonia, and help us. With such personal 
 qualities and such friends Boswell holds himself admirably 
 qualified for a seat in the Legislature. He will present himself 
 at next election as a candidate for Ayrshire. I have reason 
 to hope," he proceeds, "that many of the real freeholders of 
 Ayrshire will support me at the election for next Parliament, 
 against which I have declared myself a candidate. I shall cer- 
 tainly stand upon the substantial interest of the gentlemen of 
 landed property ; and if upon a fair trial I should not succeed 
 in that object of ambition, which I have most ardently at heart, 
 I have resources enough to prevent me from being discontented 
 and fretful." 
 
 The project of settling in London and forming a connection 
 with the English Bar, which Boswell had long cherished, was 
 now to be carried out. After keening his terms, according to the 
 usual practice, he was called to the English Bar, at Hilary 
 term, 1786. His professional dchut prognosticated failure. 
 Some of the junior barristers, to whom he was known as Johnsons 
 Bozzy, prepared an imaginary case full of absurdity, which was 
 submitted for his opinion. Unsuspecting a trap, he prepared
 
 144 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 an elaborate note of judgment. The laughter was prodigious, and 
 the merriment penetrated into private circles. A ridiculous ap- 
 pearance in court, made soon afterwards, put a final check on 
 his career as a practising barrister.* About three years after 
 joining the English Bar he represented his condition to Mr. 
 Temple in these terms : — 
 
 " London, January IQth, 1789. 
 " I am sadly discouraged by having no practice nor probable 
 prospect of it ; and to confess fairly to you, my friend, I am 
 afraid that were I to be tried, I should be found so deficient in 
 the forms, the quirks, and the quiddities, which early habit 
 acquires, that I should expose myself. Yet the delusion of 
 Westminster Hall, of brilliant reputation and splendid fortune 
 as a barrister, still weighs upon my imagination, I must be 
 seen in the courts, and must hope for some happy openings in 
 causes of importance. The Chancellor, as you observe, has not 
 done as I expected ; but why did I expect it ? I am going to 
 put him to the test. Could I be satisfied with being Baron of 
 Auchinleck, with a good income for a gentleman in Scotland, I 
 might, no doubt, be independent. But wdiat can be done to 
 deaden the ambition which has ever raged in my veins like a 
 fever ? In the country I should sink into wretched gloom, or at 
 best into listless dulness and sordid abstraction. Perhaps a 
 time may come when I may by lapse of time be grown fit for it. As 
 yet I, really from a philosophical spirit, allow myself to be driven 
 along the tide of life with a good deal of caution not to be much 
 hurt ; and still flattering myself that an unexpected lucky chance 
 may at last place me so that the prediction of a fortunate cap 
 appearing on my head at my birth will be fulfilled." 
 
 Not long after writing this letter Boswell obtained his only 
 professional appointment ; he was, through the influence of Lord 
 
 ♦ Boswell's motion in Court, qiiare adkcedt paolmento, is pre- 
 served as a jest in the courts of Westminster.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWEl.I.. 145 
 
 Lowther, appointed Recorder of Carlisle. The emoluments of 
 the oftice were small, and as an attendance of several weeks 
 was required annually, the acquisition was inconsiderable. But 
 the wits did not permit the new Recorder to enter on his post 
 without ridicule. The following jcu cVcsprit obtained circula- 
 tion : — 
 
 "Boswell once flamed with patriot zeal, 
 
 His bow was ever bent ; 
 Now he no public wrongs can feel 
 
 Till Lowther nods assent. 
 
 To seize the throne which faction tries, 
 
 And would the Prince command, 
 The Tory Boswell coolly cries. 
 
 My King's in "Westmoreland." 
 
 At the close of the first edition of Boswell's Tour to the 
 Hebrides, appeared the following advertisement : — 
 
 " Preparing for the Press, in one volume quarto, 
 ^- The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. 
 
 By James Boswell, Esq. 
 
 " Mr. Boswell has been collecting materials f(3r this work for 
 more than twenty years, during which he was honoured with 
 the intimate friendship of Dr. Johnson ; to whose memory he 
 is ambitious to erect a literary monument, worthy of so great an 
 authour, and so excellent a man. Dr. Johnson was well informed 
 of his design, and obligingly communicated to him several 
 curious particulars. With these will be interwoven the most 
 authentick accounts that can be obtained from those who knew 
 him best; many sketches of his conversation on a multiplicity 
 of subjects, with various persons, some of them the most 
 eminent of the age ; a great number of letters from him at 
 different periods, and several original pieces dictated by him to 
 Mr. Boswell, distinguished by that peculiar energy which 
 marked every emanation of his mind." 
 
 This advertisement, more befittijig the announcement of a 
 
 L
 
 146 MEMOIK OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 play than the memoir of a moralist, did not escape the witty 
 criticism of the sarcastic Pindar. In a postscript to his 
 " Poetical Epistle " he has thus written : — 
 
 " As Mr. Boswell's ' Journal ' hath afforded such universal 
 pleasure, by the relation of minute incidents and the great 
 moralist's opinion of men and things during his northern tour, it 
 will be adding greatly to the anecdotical treasury, as well as 
 making ]\Ir. B. happy, to communicate part of a dialogue that took 
 place between Dr. Johnson and the author of this congratulatory 
 epistle, a few months before the Doctor paid the great debt of 
 nature. The Doctor was very cheerful that day, had on a black 
 coat and waistcoat, a black plush y>Q,iv of breeches, and black 
 worsted stockings, a handsome grey wig, a shirt, a muslin neck- 
 cloth, a black pair of buttons in his shirt-sleeves, a pair of shoes 
 ornamented with the very identical little buckles that accom- 
 panied the philosopher to the Hebrides; his nails were very 
 neatly pared, and his beard fresh shaved with a razor fabricated 
 by the ingenious Mr, Savigny. 
 
 " F. P. : ' Pray, Doctor, what is your opinion of Mr. Boswell's 
 literary powers ? ' 
 
 " Johnson : ' Sir, my opinion is, that whenever Bozzy ex- 
 pires, he will create no vacuum in the region of literature — he 
 seems strongly affected by the cacoethes scribcndi ; wishes to be 
 thought a rara avis, and in truth so he is — your knowledge in 
 ornithology, sir, will easily discover to what species of bird I 
 allude.' Here the Doctor shook his head and laughed. 
 
 " P. P. : ' What think you, sir, of his account of Corsica ? — of 
 his character of Paoli ? ' 
 
 " Johnson : ' Sir, he hath made a mountain of a wart. But 
 Paoli hath virtues. The account is a farrago of disgusting 
 egotism and pompous inanity.' 
 
 " P. P.: 'I have heard it whispered, Doctor, that should you 
 die before him, Mr. B. means to write your life.' 
 
 " Johnson : ' Sir, he cannot mean me so irreparable an injury, 
 — which of us shall die first, is only known to the Great 
 Disposer of events ; but were I sure that James BosM'ell
 
 MEMOIR OF J.VMES BOSWEI.L. 147 
 
 would write viy life, I do not know whether I would not 
 anticipate the measure by taking his.' (Here he made three 
 or four strides across the room, and returned to his chair wiili 
 violent emotion.) 
 
 " P. P. : 'I am afraid that he means to do you tlie favour.' 
 ''Johnson: 'He dares not — he would make a scarecrow of 
 me. I give him liberty to fire his blunderbuss in his own face, 
 but not murder mc, sir. I heed not his avToq t<pQ. Boswell 
 write my life ! why, the fellow possesses not abilities fur writing 
 the life of an ephemeron.' " 
 
 Naturally indolent and procrastinating, Boswell was, like 
 persons of his temperament, aroused to enterprise by harsh 
 and ungenerous criticism. Johnson's " Life " was commenced at 
 once, and for some time prosecuted vigorously. Abandoned for 
 many months, it was taken up in 1787, and worked upon at 
 intervals in the year following. 
 
 The progress of the undertaking is in February 1788, thus 
 reported to Mr. Temple : — 
 
 " Mason's Life of Gray is excellent, because it is interspersed 
 with letters which show us the man. ... I am absolutely cer- 
 tain that my mode of biogi'aphy, which gives not only a history of 
 Johnson's visible progress through the world, and of his publi- 
 cations, but a view of his mind in his letters and conversations, 
 is the most perfect that can be conceived, and will be more of a 
 life than any work that has ever yet appeared. I have been 
 wretchedly dissipated, so that I have not written a line for a 
 fortnight ; but to-day I resume my pen, and shall labou r 
 vigorously." 
 
 To Mr. Temple a further report is presented in January, 
 1789:— 
 
 "I am now very near ray rough draft of Johnson's Life. On 
 Saturday I finished the Introduction and Dedication to Sir
 
 148 MRMOIPv OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 J oshua, both of which had appeared very difficult to be accom- 
 plished. I am confident they are well done. Whenever I have 
 completed the rough draft, by which I mean the work with- 
 out nice correction, Malone and I are to prepare one-half 
 perfectly, and then it goes to press, whence I hope to have it 
 early in February, so as to be out by the end of May." 
 
 After joining the English Bar, and establishing his head- 
 quarters in London, Boswell rented inexpensive chambers near 
 the law courts ; but in the winter of 1788-9 he removed to 
 a house in Queen Anne Street West, Cavendish Square. He 
 was joined by his two sons, and his daughter Veronica, — the 
 sons attending an academy in Soho. His attendants were " a 
 butler and Scotch housekeeper," whom he kept " on account 
 of their fidelity and moderate wages." * 
 
 Mrs. Boswell made a trial of London, but soon returned to 
 
 Auchinleck. She disapproved her husband's preference for the 
 
 English Bar, and feared that the fogs of London would prove 
 
 injurious to her health. She had been an asthmatic patient, and 
 
 at the commencement of 1789 the complaint returned in an 
 
 aggravated form. Writing to Mr. Temple on the 5th March, 
 
 Boswell expresses himself deeply concerned about his " valuable 
 
 and affectionate wife," but he feels that joining lier in the country 
 
 would destroy the completion of the Life of Johnson, and remove 
 
 him from " the great whirl of the metropolis," from which he 
 
 hoped " in time to have a capital prize." He had visited Ayrshire 
 
 at the close of 1788, and there prosecuted an active canvass 
 
 among his supposed friends, the parliamentary freeholders. The 
 
 visit and its prospective results are thus detailed to Mr. 
 
 Temple : — 
 
 \ ''London, 10th January, 1789. 
 
 " As to my canvass in my own county, I started in opposition 
 * Letter from Boswell to Mr. Temple.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 149 
 
 to a junction between Lord Eglintoim and Sir Adam Fergusson, 
 who were violent opponents, and whose coalition is as odious 
 there as the Great One is to the nation. A few friends and real 
 independent gentlemen early declared for me ; three other noble 
 lords, the Earls of Cassilis, Glencairn, and Dumfries, have lately 
 joined and set up a nephew of the Earl of Cassilis : a Mr. John 
 Whitefoord, who as yet stands as I do, will, I understand, make 
 a bargain with this alliance. Supposing he does, the two great 
 parties will be so poised that I shall have it in my power to cast 
 the balance. If they are so piqued that either will rather give 
 the seat to me than be beaten by the other, I may have it. 
 Thus I stand, and I shall be firm. Should Lord Lonsdale give 
 me a seat he would do well, but I have no claim upon him 
 for it. In the matter of the regency he adds that he had 
 ' almost written one of his very warm popular pamphlets in 
 favour of the Prince ; ' but as Lord Lonsdale was ill, and he had 
 no opportunity of learning his sentiments, he had ' prudently 
 refrained.' He accuses Pitt of 'behaving very ill,' in neg- 
 lecting him, and denounces Duudas 'as a sad fellow in his 
 private capacity.' " 
 
 BosweU returned to Ayrshire in April. Mrs. Boswell had 
 written that she was " wasting away," and her physician was 
 not hopeful of her improvement. Her husband thus describes 
 her condition to Mr. Temple :* — 
 
 " I found," he writes, " my dear wife as ill, or rather worse 
 than I apprehended. The consuming hectic fever liad preyed 
 upon her incessantly during the winter and spring, and she was 
 miserably emaciated and weak. The physician and surgeon- 
 apothecary, whom she allows occasionaUy, though rarely, to visit 
 her, told me fairly, as to a man able to support with firm- 
 ness what they announced, that they had no hopes of lier 
 recovery, though she might linger they could not say how 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Temple of 22nd May.
 
 150 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOS WELL. 
 
 lon<T. . . . No man ever had a hitfher esteem or a warmer 
 love for a wife thau I have for her. You will recollect, my 
 Temple, how our marriage was the result of an attachment 
 truly romantic; yet how painful is it to me to recollect a 
 thousand instances of inconsistent conduct ! I can justify," 
 he adds, " my removing to the great sphere of England upon 
 a principle of laudable ambition, but the frequent scenes of what 
 I must call dissolute conduct are inexcusable ; and often and 
 often, when she was very ill in London, have 1 been indulging in 
 festivity with Sir Joshua Eeynolds, Courtenay, Malone, &c., and 
 have come home late and disturbed her repose." 
 
 In these expressions of affection Boswell was sincere, but he 
 would have better indicated regret for past inattention to his 
 suffering helpmate if his conduct during her last illness had been 
 more suited to her condition. During the five weeks he re- 
 mained at Auchinleck, he was, according to his own acknow- 
 ledgment, " repeatedly from home," and both " on these occasions, 
 and when neighbours visited him, drank too much wine." 
 Eeturning from a neighboiir's house in a state of inebriety, 
 he experienced an accident, the particulars of which he thus 
 related to Mr. Temple : — 
 
 " On Saturday last, dining at a gentleman's house where I was 
 visiting for the first time, and was eager to obtain political in- 
 fluence,- I drank so freely that, riding home in the dark without 
 a servant, I fell from my horse and bruised my shoulder 
 severely. Next morning I had it examined by a surgeon, who 
 found no fracture or dislocation, but blooded me largely to 
 prevent inflammation." 
 
 Tlie presence in Auchinleck House of one whose habits were 
 so in'cgular, and who had narrowly escaped death in a fit of 
 drunkenness, was not likely to soothe the dying gentlewoman. 
 Some days after the occurrence of his accident, Boswell was
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 151 
 
 invited by a friend of Lord Lonsdale to accompany his lordship 
 in an early journey to London. Though still a sufferer and in 
 bed on account of his fall, he resolved to obey the summons, 
 and Mrs. Boswell " animated him to set out." With his arm in 
 a sling he posted to Carlisle. Eeaching Lowther Castle, he 
 found Lord Lonsdale " in no hurry to proceed on the London 
 journey." Meanwhile his shoulder became more uneasy, the 
 pain extending to the breast and over the entire arm, so that he 
 was unable to put on his clothes without help.* 
 
 Two weeks after he had reached London a letter from the 
 Auchinleck physician informed him that Mrs. Boswell was 
 rapidly sinking. He at once set out for Ayrshire, accompanied by 
 his two sons, and, as he is particular in relating, the journey was 
 performed in " sixty-four hours and a quarter." On his arrival he 
 found that Mrs. Boswell had died four days before. In a letter 
 to Mr. Temple, dated 3rd July, he wrote thus : — 
 
 " I cried bitterly and upbraided myself for leaving her, for she 
 would not have left me. This reflection, my dear friend, will, I fear, 
 pursue me to my grave. ... I could hardly bring myself to 
 agree that the body should be removed, for it was still a consola- 
 tion to me to go and kneel by it, and talk to my dear, dear 
 Peggy. . . . Her funeral was remarkably well attended. 
 There were nineteen carriages followed the hearse, and a 
 large body of horsemen, and the tenants of all my lands. 
 It is not customary in Scotland for a husband to attend a wife's 
 funeral, but I resolved, if I possibly could, to do her the last 
 honours myself ; and I was able to go through it very decently. 
 I privately read the funeral service over her coffin in presence of 
 my sons, and was relieved by that ceremony a good deal. On 
 the Sunday after Mr. Dun delivered, almost verbatim, a iew 
 sentences which I sent him as a character of her." 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Temple. 
 4
 
 152 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL, 
 
 Boswell's religious views were still unsettled. During his 
 wife's illness be wrote to Mr. Temple, " What aid can my wife 
 have from religion, except a pious resignation to the great and 
 good God ? for indeed she is too shrewd to receive the common 
 topics ; she is keen and penetrating." What " the common 
 topics " were, belief in which Boswell regarded with contempt, 
 he has not informed us, and it might be hazardous to con- 
 jecture. 
 
 The dissolution of Parliament expected in the spring of 1789 
 did not occur, but the representation of Ayrshire became vacant 
 in July, owing to the acceptance of a public office by the sitting 
 member, Colonel Montgomerie. Obtaining intimation of the 
 vacancy, Boswell, four wrecks a widower, hastened from Loudon 
 to Ayrshire to renew his claims. There were two other candi- 
 dates — Sir Adam Fergusson and Mr. John Whitefoord. The 
 former was chosen. Boswell informed Mr. Temple that " he 
 would make an admirable figure even if he should be unsuccess- 
 ful." He stood alone ! 
 
 Since his failure at the English Bar, Boswell had been most 
 energetic in the pursuit of patronage. He rested his hopes on 
 Mr. Dundas and Mr. Pitt, but more especially on Mr. Burke 
 and Lord Lonsdale. Concerning the two former he thus com- 
 municated with Mr.Temple in the spring of 1789. After censuring 
 Air. Dundas for neglecting to promote his brother David, he pro- 
 ceeds : — 
 
 " As to myself, Dundas, though he pledged himself (as the 
 modern phrase isj to assist me in advancing in promotion, and 
 though he last year assured me, upon his honour, that my letter 
 concerning the Scottish judges made no difference; yet, except 
 when I in a manner compelled him to dine with me last winter, 
 he has entirely avoided me, and I strongly suspect has given Pitt 
 a prejudice against me. The excellent Langton says it is dis-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 153 
 
 graceful ; it is utter folly in Pitt not to reward and attach to his 
 administration a man of nij' popular and pleasant talents, whose 
 merit he has acknowledged in a letter under his own hand. He 
 did not answer several letters which I wrote at intervals, request- 
 ing to wait upon him ; I lately wrote to him that such behaviour 
 to me was certainly not generous. ' I think it is not just, and 
 (forgive the freedom) I doubt if it be wise. If I do not hear from 
 you in ten days, I shall conclude that you are inclined to have 
 no further communication with me ; for I assure you, sir, I am 
 extremely unwilling to give you, or indeed myself, unnecessary 
 trouble.' About two months have elapsed, and he has made 
 no sign. How can I still delude myself with dreams of rising in 
 the great sphere of life." 
 
 Mr. Burke knew Boswell's good qualities, and had sought to 
 befriend him. In 1782 he recommended him for employment 
 to General Conway,* though without success. BosweU still hoped 
 to obtain a post through his influence, and not infrequently 
 reminded him that he was unprovided for. To ]\[r. Temple, 
 in March, 1789, he describes Mr. Burke in these terms : — 
 
 " I cannot help thinking with you that Pitt is the ablest and 
 most useful minister of any of those whom we know ; yet I am 
 not sure that after the ^crzc?i/rt which should give caution, others 
 (and amongst them Burke, whom I visited yesterday, and found 
 as ably philosophical in political disquisition as ever) might not 
 do as well ; and if he has treated me unjustly in his stewardship 
 for the public, and behaved with ungrateful insolence to my 
 2Jatron,-\- who first introduced him into public life, may I not war- 
 rantably arraign many articles, and great ones too, in his conduct 
 
 * Henry Seymour Conway, a General in tlio army, was brother of 
 the first Marquess of Hertford. He Avas under tlie Rockingham ad- 
 ministration S ecretary of State for Ireland, and leader of tlie House 
 of Commons. He died in 1795. 
 
 f Pitt was brouglit into Parliament for tlic close borougli of 
 Ai^pleby by Sir James Lowther, afterwards Lord Lonsdale.
 
 154 MEMOIK OF J.VMES BOSWELL. 
 
 which I can attack with forcible energy ? At present I keep 
 myself quiet, and wait till we see how things wiU turn out." 
 
 While thus distrusting or despising his other patrons, Boswell 
 rested strongly on Lord Lonsdale. To Mr. Temple he commu- 
 nicated in March that his lordship showed him " more and more 
 regard." He was his last star of hope; but the setting was at 
 hand. 
 
 Checked in his legal, political, and parliamentary aspirations 
 Boswell began to devote some attention to family affairs. By 
 his brother David he was advised to return to Scotland, and there 
 attend to the education of his children. Concerning this pro- 
 posal he remarks to Mr. Temple : — 
 
 " Undoubtedly my having a house in Edinburgh would be 
 best for them (the children) ; but, besides that my withdraw- 
 ing thither would cut me off from all those chances which may 
 in time raise me in life, I could not possibly endure Edinburgh 
 now, unless I were to have a judge's place to bear me up ; and 
 even then I should deeply sigh for the metropolis." 
 
 He determined to remain in London. Plans for the dis- 
 posal of his children were, after nmch wavering, at length 
 resolved upon. Alexander, his eldest son, having "begun to 
 oppose him," * was removed from Soho Academy to Eton. He 
 was afterwards to be sent to the University of Edinburgh, and 
 latterly to Holland and Germany for the study of civil law, 
 James, the second son, described to Mr. Temple as " an extraor- 
 dinary boy, much of his father," was to be educated as a barrister. 
 Meanwhile, being in his eleventh year, he was to be continued at 
 the Soho school. Veronica, the eldest daughter, was kept in 
 London under the charge of Mrs. Buchanan, a widow. 
 Eupliemia, the second daughter, was sent to a boarding-school in. 
 
 * Letter to Mr. Temple.
 
 MExMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 155 
 
 Edinburgh; and Elizabeth, the youngest, was placed in an educa- 
 tional institution at Ayr. By thus dispersing the members of 
 his family, Boswell secured himself against any interference with 
 his habits. For his children the arrangement was salutary, 
 since they could not have profited by the exhibition of his 
 weaknesses. 
 
 Amidst incessant place-hunting and a round of social indul- 
 gences, the " Life of Johnson " proceeded slowly. The public were 
 meanwhile entertained by Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes.* This work 
 and the " Life of Johnson," by Sir John Hawkins, seemed to 
 satisfy general curiosity. The latter work, which appeared in 
 1787, deeply mortified Boswell; he was mentioned in it only 
 once, and then as " Mr. James Boswell, a native of Scotland." f 
 Indignation inspired him with energy. As specimens of his 
 forthcoming work, he issued in quarto form two portions of 
 its contents, with these titles:— "The Celebrated Letter from 
 Samuel Johnson, LL.D., to Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of 
 Chesterfield, now first published, with notes by James Boswell, 
 Esq. London: Printed by Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, in 
 the Poultry, 1790. [Price Half a Guinea.]" "A Conversation 
 between His Most Sacred jNlajesty George III. and Samuel 
 Johnson, LL.D., illustrated with Observations by James Boswell, 
 Esq. London : Printed by Henry Baldwin for Charles Dilly, in 
 the Poultry, 1790. [Price Half a Guinea.]" 
 
 The former of these fasciculi occupied four, and the latter 
 eight quarto pages. Intimating to Mr. Temple that " a part of 
 
 * Mrs. Piozzi's Anecdotes of Dr. Johnson. London : 1785. 
 
 f Boswell called on Sir John Hawkins, and complained of being 
 sliohted in his book. " I know what you mean," said Sir John; " you 
 wo'uld have had me to say that Johnson undertook this tour with 
 the BosweU." Mus Hawldns Johmoniava.
 
 156 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 liis magnum opus was ready for the press," he added tliat 
 Hawkins should not be spared. His labours were interrupted by 
 ]\Irs. Boswell's illness and his return to inebriate habits. On 
 the 28th November he wrote to Mr. Temple : — 
 " Let me first address you from Cato : — 
 
 ' Thou best of friends, 
 Pardon a weak distemper'd soul that swells, 
 In sudden gusts, and sinks again in calms.' 
 
 Your last letter supposes too truly my situation. With grief 
 continually at my heart, I have been endeavouring to seek relief 
 in dissipation and in wine, so that my life for some time past has 
 been unworthy of myself, of you, and of all that is valuable in 
 my character and connections. For a week past, as the common 
 ])hrase is, ' I have taken up,' and by a more regular and quiet 
 course find myself, I think, rather better." 
 
 As in the case of his " Tour to the Hebrides," Boswell submitted 
 each successive chapter of the " Life of Johnson " to the revision of 
 jNIr. Malone. In his letter to Mr. Temple of tlie 28th November 
 he remarks : — 
 
 " The revision of my ' Life of Johnson ' by so acute and know- 
 ing a critic as Mr. Malone is of most essential consequence, 
 especially as he is Johnsoiiianissimus ; and as he is to hasten to 
 Ireland as soon as his Shakspere * is fairly published, I must 
 avail myself of him noxo. His hospitality and my other invita- 
 tions, and particularly my attendance at Lord Lonsdale's, have 
 lost us many evenings ; but I reckon that a third of the work is 
 settled, so that I shall get to press very soon. You cannot ima- 
 gine what labour, what perplexity, what vexation I have endured 
 in arranging a prodigious multiplicity of materials, in supplying 
 oiuissious, in searching for papers, buried in different masses, 
 and all this besides the exertion of composing and polishing. 
 Many a time have I thought of giving it up. However, though 
 
 * Malone's Edition of Shakspere, in ten volumes, was published 
 ill 1790.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 1 
 
 cer- 
 
 I shall be uneasily sensible of its many deliciencies, it will 
 tainly be to the world a very valuable and peculiar volume of 
 biography, full of literary and characteristical anecdotes (whicli 
 word, by the way, Johnson always condemned, as used in the 
 sense that the French, and we from them, use it, as signifying 
 particulars), told with authenticity, and in a lively manner. 
 Would that it were in the booksellers' shops ! Methinks, if I 
 had this magnum oj)us launched, the public has no further claim ' 
 upon me ; for I have promised no more, and I may die in peace, 
 or retire into dull obscurity, reddarquc tcncbris." 
 
 Writing to Mr. Temple on the 8th February, 1790, Boswell 
 thus reports progress : — 
 
 " I am within a short walk of Mr. Malone, who revises my 
 ' Life of Johnson' with me. We have not yet gone over quite 
 a half of it, but it is at last fairly in the press. I intended to 
 have printed it upon what is called an English letter, which 
 would have made it look better ; but upon calculation it would 
 have made two quarto volumes, and two quarto volumes for one 
 life woidd have appeared exorbitant, though in truth it is a 
 view of much of the literature, and many of the literary men of 
 Great Britain for more than half a century. I have therefore 
 taken a smaller type, called Pica, and even upon that I am afraid 
 its bulk will be very large. It is curious to observe how a 
 printer calculates ; he arranges a number of pages, and the words 
 in them at different parts of the 'copy' (as the MS. is called), 
 and so finds the number of words. Mine here are four hun- 
 dred and one thousand six hundred. Does not this frighten 
 you. By printing a page the number of words it holds is 
 discovered ; and by dividing the sum-total of words by that num- 
 ber we get the number of pages. Mine will be eight hundred. 
 I think it will be, without exception, the most entertaining book 
 you ever read. I cannot be done with printing before the end 
 of August." 
 
 In excellent terms with himself, and rejoicing in his literary 
 aptitude, he thus addresses Mr. Temple on the 13th February :—
 
 lo8 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSVrELL. 
 
 " I dine ill a different company ahnost every day, at least 
 scarcely ever twice running in the same company, so that I have 
 fresh accessions of ideas. I drink with Lord Lonsdale one day ; 
 the next I am quiet in Malone's elegant study revising my 
 Life of Johnson, of which I have high expectations, both as to 
 fame and profit. I surely have the art of writing agreeably. 
 The Lord Chancellor * told me he had read every word of my 
 Hebridean Journal ; he could not help it." 
 
 On the 4th December Boswell addressed Mr. Malone : f — 
 " The magnum opus advances. I have revised p. 216. The 
 additions which I have received are a Spanish quotation from 
 Mr. Cambridge, an account of Johnson at Warley Camp from 
 ]\Ir. Langton, and Johnson's letters to Mr. Hastings — three 
 in all, — one of them long and admirable ; but what sets the 
 diamonds in pure gold of Opliir is a letter from Mr. Hastings 
 to me, illustrating them and their writer. I had this day the 
 honour of a long visit from the late Governor- General of India. 
 There is to be no more impeachment. But you w^ill see his 
 character nobly vindicated, depend upon this." 
 
 Though still ambitious of professional advancement, Boswell 
 began to dread the merriment of the Circuit mess, promoted too 
 frequently at his personal cost. On the plea of saving £50, 
 and " avoiding rough, unpleasant company," he informed Mr, 
 Temple inFebruary, 1789, that he would omit the spring Northern 
 Circuit. In August he communicated to the same correspondent 
 that he had proceeded to Lord Lonsdale's with the intention of 
 joining the autumn Circuit at Carlisle; but that considering 
 his " late severe loss," and " the rough scenes of the roaring, ban- 
 tering society of lawyers," he preferred to remain at Lowther 
 Castle. At the castle he was subjected to a practical jest, which 
 as an annoying inci<lent he thus describes to Mr. Temple : — 
 
 * Lord Chancellor Thurlow. 
 
 t Boswell's Life of Johnson, edited by the Eight Hon. John "Wil- 
 son Crokor and others, London, 1848, 12nio., vol. x.. pp. 209-220.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 159 
 
 " A strange accident happened ; the house at Lowther was 
 so crowded that I and two other gentlemen were laid in one 
 room. On Thursday morning my wig was missing ; a strict 
 search was made, all in vain. I was obliged to go all day 
 in my night-cap, and absent myself from a party of ladies 
 and gentlemen who went and dined with the Earl on tlie banks 
 of the lake, — a piece of amusement which I was glad to shun, 
 as well as a dance which they had at night. But I was in a 
 ludicrous situation. I suspected a wanton trick ^^'hich some 
 people think witty ; but I thought it very ill-timed to one in my 
 situation. Next morning the Earl and a colonel, who I thought 
 might have concealed my wig, declared to me, upon honour 
 they did not know where it was ; and the conjecture was that a 
 clergyman who was in the room with me, and had packed up 
 his portmanteau in a great hurry to set out in the morning 
 early, might have put it up among his things. This is very impro- 
 bable ; but I could not long remain an object of laughter, so 
 I went twenty-five miles to Carlisle on Tuesday, and luckily 
 eot a wis]; there fitted for me in a few hours." 
 
 On the 13th October Boswell informed Mr. Temple that on 
 lately visiting Lowther Castle he received back his wig. " The 
 way in which it was lost," he adds, " will remain as secret as 
 the author of Ju.nius." 
 
 Mr. Temple became urgent for repayment of a loan of £200, 
 and in obtainmg the necessary means Boswell severely taxed 
 his resources. Referring to the debt, he assured his cor- 
 respondent that he had, after deducting family costs, a free 
 income of not more than £350, and that while he had been in 
 straitened circumstances for twenty years, he dreaded that his 
 embarrassments would continue. In a letter dated 28th Novem- 
 ber he returns to his pecuniary difficulties. 
 
 " The state of my affairs is very disagreeable ; but be not 
 afraid of your £200, as you may depend upon its being repaid. 
 My rent roll is above £1,600 ; but deducting annuities, interest
 
 160 MEMOre OF JAMES ROSAVELL. 
 
 of debts, and expenses absolutely necessary at Auchinleck, 1 
 have but about £850 to spend. I reckon my five children at 
 £500 a year. You see what remains for myself." . . . "I 
 am this year to make one trial of the Lord Chancellor. In 
 short, I cast about everywhere. I do not see the smallest 
 opening in Westminster Hall ; but I like the scene, though I 
 have attended only one day this last term, being eager to get 
 my ' Life of Johnson ' finished. And the delusion that practice 
 may come at any time fwhich is certainly true) still possesses 
 me." He adds, " I have given up my house, and taken good 
 chambers in the Inner Temple, to have the appearance of a 
 lawyer. Temple ! Temple ! is this realizing any of the 
 towering hopes which have so often been the subject of our con- 
 versation and letters ? Yet I live much with a great man, who, 
 upon any day that his fancy shall be so inclined, may obtain for 
 me an office which would make me independent." 
 
 Boswell could cherish no reasonable hope of professional 
 advancement, save through the patronage of Lord Lonsdale. 
 And the recent escapade at Lowther Castle might have shown 
 him that sentiments of respect were unassociated with his 
 lordship's friendship. What he could not perceive in August, 
 1789, was made sufficiently plain in the following June The 
 narrative must be presented in his own words. Writing from 
 Carlisle to Mr. Temple on the 21st June, 1790, he proceeds: — 
 
 " At no period during our long friendship have I been more 
 unhappy than at present. The day -on which I was obliged to 
 set out from London I had no time allowed me after a most 
 shocking conversation with Lord Lonsdale, and I hastened home 
 in hopes of finding you, but you were gone out. It was to 
 inform you that upon his seeing me by no means in good 
 humour, he challenged it roughly, and said, ' I suppose you 
 thought I was to bring you into Parliament. I never had any 
 such intention.' In short, he expressed himself in the most 
 degrading manner, in presence of a low man from Carlisle, and
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 1(51 
 
 one of his menial servants. The miserable state of low spirits 
 I had, as you too well know, laboured under for some time 
 before made me almost sink under such unexpected insulting 
 behaviour. He insisted rigorously on my having solicited the 
 office of Eecorder of Carlisle ; and that I could not, without 
 nsing him ill resign it until the duties which were now 
 required of it were fulfilled, and without a sufficient time being 
 given for the election of a successor. Thus was I dragged away 
 as wretched as a convict ; and in ray fretfulness I used such 
 expressions as excited him almost to fury, so that he used such 
 expressions towards me that I should have, according to the 
 irrational laws of honour sanctioned by the world, been under the 
 necessity of risking my life, had not an explanation taken place. 
 • . . I am down at an inn, in wretched spirits, and 
 ashamed and sunk on account of the disappointment of hopes 
 which led me to endure such grievances. I deserve all that I 
 suffer. I may be kept hanging on for weeks, till the election 
 and Midsummer Sessions are over ; and I am at the same time 
 distracted what to do in my own county, as to the state of 
 which I expect letters every day. I am quite in a fever. 
 my old and most intimate friend, what a shocking state am I 
 now reduced to ! I entreat of you, if you possibly can, to afford 
 me some consolation, directed to me here, and pray do not 
 divulge my mortification. I will endeavour to appear indifferent ; 
 and as I now resign my Eecordership, I shall gradually get rid 
 of all communication with this brutal fellow." 
 
 In Boswell's correspondence Lord Lonsdale's name only re- 
 appears once. Writing to Mr. Temple on the 21st July, he 
 remarks, "I parted from the northern tyrant in a strange 
 equivocal state, for he was half irritated, half reconciled ; but I 
 promise you I shall keep myself quite independent of him." 
 
 Parliament was dissolved in July, and Boswell proposed once 
 more to offer his services to the Ayrshire constituency. He 
 ultimately determined more wisely, remarking to j\Ir. Temple 
 
 M
 
 162 MEMOm OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 that " he did not go to Ayrshire, finding that he could only show 
 how small a party he had." 
 
 Amidst these distractions, Boswell found leisure warmly to 
 interest himself in two objects to which he had pledged his 
 support. The first of these was to obtain subscribers for two 
 volumes of sermons, published by his former tutor and early 
 friend, Mr. John Dun, parish minister of Auchinleck.* In 
 these volumes the reverend author attempted to ridicule the 
 poet Burns. The following verses, a parody on the bard's 
 " Address to the Deil," were regarded by Boswell without 
 disfavour : — 
 
 " The Deil's Answer to his verra Freend E. Burns. 
 
 " So zealous Eobin, stout an' fell, 
 True champion for the cause o' hell, 
 Thou beats the righteous down pell mell, 
 
 Sae frank and frothy, 
 That o' a seat where devils dwell, 
 
 There's nane mair worthy. 
 » # # # 
 
 " Thou does as weel's could be expectit, 
 0' ane wha's wit lay long neglectet ; 
 Some godly folk your rhyme, I trow, 
 
 Ca' worthless blether ; 
 But be na feart, ye's get your due, 
 
 When we forgather. 
 * * * * 
 
 " In hell when I read o'er your sang, 
 Where rhymes come thun'ring wi' a bang, 
 Quoth I, trouth I's see Eab or lang, 
 
 An' that's be seen. 
 Giif Nick should on me ride the stang 
 
 To Aberdeen." 
 
 Mr. Dun's work was still-born. In a letter to Mr. Temple, 
 
 * "Sermons, in two volumes, by John Dun, V.D.M. Kilmarnock, 
 1 790," 8vo.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOS WELL. 16?. 
 
 Boswell regrets thcat his friend would, by his performance, be 
 " a sad loser." 
 
 While thus abetting the ridicule of the Ayrshire poet, 
 Boswell's other enterprize was more creditable. lie gave 
 assistance in raising funds for a monument to Dr. Johnson in 
 Westminster Abbey. To this undertaking he thus refers in a 
 letter to Mr. Temple, dated the 28th November, 1789 :— 
 
 " Last Sunday I dined with him (Malone), with Sir Joshua 
 Eeynolds, Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Metcalfe, Mr. Windham, Mr. 
 Courtenay, and young Mr. Burke, being a select number of 
 Dr. Johnson's friends, to settle as to effectual measures for 
 having a monument erected to him in Westminster Abbey ; 
 it is to be a whole-length statue of him, by Bacon, which will 
 cost £600. Sir Joshua and Sir William Scott, his executors, 
 are to send circular letters to a number of people, of whom 
 we make a list, as supposing they will contribute. Several 
 of us subscribed five guineas each, Sir Joshua and Metcalfe 
 ten guineas each, Courtenay and young Burke two guineas 
 each. Will you not be one of us, were it but for one 
 guinea ? We expect that the Bench of Bishops will be liberal, 
 as he was the greatest supporter of the hierarchy. That 
 venerable sound brings to my mind the ruffians of France, who 
 are attempting to destroy all order, ecclesiastical and civil. 
 The present state of that country is an intellectual earthquake, 
 a whirlwind, a mad insurrection, without any immediate cause, 
 and therefore we see to what a horrible anarchy it tends." 
 
 The subject of the monument is resumed in Boswell's letter 
 to Mr. Temple, dated 8th February, 1790 :— 
 
 "You will have seen that Johnson's friends have been 
 exerting themselves for his monument, which is to cost six 
 hundred guineas. We have now near to £400 of the money. 
 Can we have no Cornish coin ? I wish you could assist us in 
 your neighbourhood. As your character of Gray was adopted 
 by him it would appear well if you sent two guineas. We
 
 164 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOS WELL. 
 
 shall have a great dispute as to the epitaph. Flood, the orator, 
 though a distinguished scholar, says it should be in English, as 
 a compliment to Johnson's having perpetuated our language ; 
 he has compressed his opinion in these lines : — 
 
 *' 'No need of Latin, or of Greek to grace 
 
 Our Johnson's memory and inscribe his grave ; 
 His native tongue demands this mournful space, 
 To pay the immortality he gave." 
 
 Johnson's monument in Westminster Abbey was erected in 
 1796 at the cost of eleven hundred guineas ; it was inscribed 
 with a Latin epitaph composed by Dr. Parr. Mr. Temple's 
 name does not appear among the subscribers. 
 
 AYith the entire prostration of his political and professional 
 expectations, BosweU relapsed into melancholy. In a letter 
 to Mr. Temple dated 21st July he expresses liimseK in this 
 earnest manner : — 
 
 " Surely, my dear friend, there must be another world in 
 which such beings as we are will have our misery compensated. 
 But is not this a state of probation ? and if it is, how awful is 
 the consideration ! I am struck with your question, ' Have 
 you confidence in the Divine aid ? ' In truth I am sensible 
 that I do not sufficiently ' try my ways ' as the Psalmist says, 
 and am ever almost inclined to think with you that my great 
 oracle Johnson did allow too much credit to good principles, 
 ivitho2it good practice." 
 
 In this passage Dr. Johnson's sentiments on practical religion 
 are strangely perverted. Had not the great moralist warned 
 his companion against vanity and self-deceit, and the substitu- 
 tion of good intentions for the active practice of virtue ? In 
 the autumn of 1790, Boswell's intemperance was excessive. On 
 the 4th December, he wrote to ^Mr. jSIalone in these words : — 
 
 " On the day after your departure, that most friendly fellow
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 165 
 
 Courtenay* (begging the pardon of an M.P. for so free an 
 epithet) called on me, and took my word and honour that, till 
 the 1st of March, my allowance of wine per diem should not 
 exceed four good glasses at dinner, and a pint after it; and 
 this I have kept, though I have dined with Jack Wilkes ; at 
 the London Tavern, after the launch of an Indiaman with dear 
 Edwards ; Dilly ; at home with Courtenay ; Dr. Barrow ; at 
 the mess of the Coldstream ; at the Club ; at Warren Hastings ;' 
 at Hawkins the Cornish member's ; and at home with a 
 colonel of the guards, &c. This regulation, I assure you, is of 
 essential advantage in many respects." 
 
 Like the vow under "the solemn yew" at Mamhead, the 
 word of honour pledged to Mr. Courtenay was soon forgotten. 
 On the 25th February, 1791, Boswell wrote to Mr. Malone as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Your friendly admonition as to excess in wine has been 
 often too applicable ; but upon this late occasion I erred on the 
 other side. However as I am now free from my restriction to 
 Courtenay I shall be much upon my guard ; for, to tell the 
 truth, I did go too deep the day before yesterday, having dined 
 with Michael Angelo Taylor, and then supped at the London 
 Tavern with the stewards of the Humane Society." 
 
 In his letter of the 4th December, Boswell affirms that his 
 promise of sobriety extended till the 1st of March ; he reports 
 on the 25th of February, that the term had closed! His 
 melancholy had returned. On the 7th of February Mr. Temple 
 was addressed thus : — 
 
 " Before this time you have been informed of my having had 
 a most miserable return of bad spirits. Not only have I had 
 
 * John Courtenay, Esq., was born in Ireland in 1741, and died 
 in 1816. He composed the " Poetical Ptcview of Dr. Johnson " and 
 other works. He was, wlien Boswell knew him, Surveyor of the 
 Ordnance and M.P. for Tamworth. He was a warm friend and 
 pleasant companion.
 
 166 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 a total distaste of life, but have been perpetually gnawed by a 
 kind of mental fever. It is really shocking that human nature 
 is liable to such inexplicable distress. Oh, my friend, what can 
 I do ? * * * Your observation in a former letter, as to time 
 being measured not only by days and years, but by an advance- 
 ment in life, is new and striking, and is brought home to us 
 both, especially to me, who have obtained no advancement 
 whatever ; but let me not harass you with my complaints." 
 
 In his next letter to Mr. Temple, written on the 2nd of 
 April, Boswell further expatiates on his melancholy. He 
 writes : — 
 
 " Your kindness to me fairly makes me shed tears. Alas ! I 
 fear that my constitutional melancholy, which returns in such 
 dismal fits, and is now aggravated by the loss of my valuable 
 wife, must prevent me from any permanent felicity in this life. 
 I snatch gratifications, but have no comfort, at least very little ; 
 yet your encouraging letters make me think at times that I 
 may yet, by God's blessing, attain to a portion of happiness, 
 such as philosophy and religion concur in assuring us that 
 this state of progressive being allows. I get bad rest in the 
 night, and then I brood over all my complaints, the sickly 
 mind which I have had from my early years — the disappointment 
 of my hopes of success in life — the irrevocable separation 
 between me and that excellent woman, who was my cousin, 
 my friend and my wife ; the embarrassment of my affairs — the 
 disadvantage to my children in having so wretched a father — 
 nay, the want of absolute certainty of being happy after death, 
 the sure prospect of which is frightful." 
 
 Within a few months after sustainmg that bereavement, 
 which he still deplored, Boswell contemplated the repair of his 
 shattered fortunes by contracting a second marriage. While 
 in the North he wrote Mr. Temple in July, 1790. " I got such 
 accounts of the lady of fortune, whose reputation you heard 
 something of, that 1 was quite determined to make no advances.
 
 MEMOIK OF JAMES BOS WELL. 167 
 
 Whether I shall take any such step I doubt much. The loss 
 I have experienced is perpetually recumng." 
 
 Boswell resolved closely to watch his opportunity. His 
 letier to Mr. Temple of the 2nd April, 1791, contains the 
 following : — 
 
 " I am to dine with Sir William Scott, the King's Advocate, 
 at the Commons to-morrow, and shall have a serious consulta- 
 tion with him, as he has always encouraged me. It is to he a 
 family party, where I am to meet Miss Bagnal (his lady's 
 sister) who may probably have six or seven hundred a year. 
 She is about seven and twenty, and he tells me lively and gay — 
 a Eanelagh girl — but of excellent principles, insomuch that she 
 reads prayers to the servants in her father's family every 
 Sunday evening. ' Let me see such a woman,' cried I ; and 
 accordingly I am to see her. She has refused young and fine 
 gentlemen. * Bravo,' cried I, ' we see then what her taste is.' 
 Here then I am, my Temple, my flattering self ! A scheme — 
 an adventure seizes my fancy. Perhaps I may not like her ; 
 and what should I do with such a companion, unless she 
 should really take a particular liking to me, which is surely 
 not probable ; and, as I am conscious of my distempered mind, 
 coidd I honestly persuade her to unite her fate with mine. As 
 to my daughters, did I see a rational prospect of so good a 
 scheme, I shoidd not neglect it on their account, though I 
 should certainly be liberal to them." 
 
 Miss Bagnal's name does not re-appear. But he informs 
 Mr. Temple on the 22nd of August that his matrimonial 
 plans were still active : — 
 
 " You must know," he writes, " I have had several matri- 
 monial schemes of late. I shall amuse you with them from 
 Auchinleck. One was Miss MUles, daughter of the late Dean 
 of Exeter, a most agreeable woman ' d'lcn certain age,' and with 
 a fortune of £10,000 ; she has left town for the summer. It 
 was no small circumstance that she said to me, ' Mr. Temple is 
 a charming man.' "
 
 168 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 The progress of Boswell's magnuin opus has been traced to 
 the 4th December, 1790. On the 12th of that month the author 
 wrote to Mr. Temple : — 
 
 " j\ly work has met with a delay for a little while — not a 
 whole day, however — by an unaccountable neglect in having 
 paper enough in readiness. I have now before me p. 256. My 
 utmost wish is to come forth on Shrove Tuesday (8th March)." 
 
 Mr. Malone was now in Ireland, and Boswell, in reporting to 
 him the progress of his undertaking, also communicated the 
 miserable details of his private embarrassments. In a letter to 
 Mr. Malone, dated the 18th January, 1791, he writes thus ; — 
 
 " I have been so disturbed by sad money matters that my 
 mind has been quite fretful ; £500 which I borrowed and lent 
 to a first cousin, an unlucky captain of an Indiaman, were due 
 on the loth to a merchant in the city. I could not possibly 
 raise that sum, and was apprehensive of being hardly used. 
 He, however, indulged me with an allowance to make partial 
 payments, £150 in two months, £150 in eight months, and the 
 remainder, with the interests, in eighteen months. How I am 
 to manage I am at a loss, and I know you cannot help me. 
 So this, upon my honour, is no hint. I am really tempted to 
 accept of the £1000 for my life of Johnson, Yet it would go 
 to my heart to sell it at a price which I think much too low. 
 Let me struggle and hope. I cannot be out on Shrove 
 Tuesday as I flattered myself. P. 376 of Vol. II. is ordered 
 for the press, and I expect another proof to-night. But I 
 have yet near 200 pages of copy, besides letters, and the death, 
 which is not yet written." 
 
 Writing to Mr. Malone on the 29 th January, BosweU makes 
 these deplorable revelations : — 
 
 " I have for some weeks had the most woeful return of 
 melancholy, insomuch that I have not only had no relish of 
 anything, but a continual uneasiness and all the prospect 
 before me for the rest of life has seemed gloomy and hopeless. 
 The state of my affairs is exceedingly embarrassed. I men-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL, 169 
 
 tioned to you that the £500 which I borrowed several years 
 ago and lent to a first cousin, an unfortunate India captain, 
 must now be paid; £150 on the 18th of March, £150 on the 
 18th October, and £257 15s. 6d. on the 18th July, 1792. This 
 debt presses upon my mind, and it is uncertain if I shall ever 
 get a shilling of it again. The clear money on which I can 
 reckon out of my estate is scarcely £900 a year. What can 
 I do ? My grave brother urges me to quit London and live 
 at my seat in the country, where he thinks that I might be 
 able to save so as gradually to relieve myself. But, alas ! I 
 should be absolutely miserable. In the meantime such are my 
 projects and sanguine expectations, that you know I purchased 
 an estate which was given long ago to a younger son of our 
 family, and came to be sold last autumn, and paid for it £2500, 
 £1500 of which I borrow upon itself by a mortgage. But the 
 remaining £1000 I cannot conceive a possibility of raising, but 
 by the mode of annuity which is I believe a very heavy dis- 
 advantage. I own it was imprudent in me to make a clear 
 purchase at a time when I was sadly straitened, but if I had 
 missed the opportunity it never again would have occurred, 
 and I should have been vexed to see an ancient appanage, 
 a piece of, as it were, the flesh and blood of the family in the 
 hands of a stranger. And now that I have made the purchase 
 I should feel myself quite despicable should I give it 
 up. In this situation, then, my dear sir, would it not be 
 wise in me to accept 1000 gviineas for my Life of Johnson, 
 supposing the person who made the offer should now stand to 
 it, which I fear may not be the case ; for two volumes may be 
 considered as a disadvantageous circumstance. Could I indeed 
 raise £1000 upon the credit of the work, I should incline to 
 game, as Sir Joshua says, because it may produce double the 
 money, though Steevens kindly tells me that I have over printed, 
 and that the curiosity about Johnson is noio only in our own 
 circle. Pray decide for me ; and if, as I suppose, you are for 
 my taking the offer inform me with whom I am to treat. 
 In my present state of spirits I am all timidity. Your absence 
 has been a severe shake to me. I am at present quite at a loss
 
 170 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 what to do. . . I have now desired to have but one com- 
 positor. Indeed, I go sluggishly and comfortlessly about my 
 work. As I pass your door I cast many a longing look. . . 
 We had a numerous club on Tuesday ; I in the chair, quoting 
 Homer and Fielding, &c. to the astonishment of Jo. Warton, 
 who Avith Langton and Seward eat a plain bit with me in my 
 new house last Saturday." 
 
 On the 10th February, Bos well informed Mr. Malone that he 
 had invested £1Q 8s. in a lottery ticket, and that instead of 
 obtaining £5000 had drawn a blank. He proceeds : — 
 
 "Oh, could I but get a few thousands, what a difference 
 would it make upon my state of mind, which is harassed by 
 thinking of my debts ! I am anxious to have your determina- 
 tion as to my magnum opus. I am very unwilling to part with 
 the property of it, and certainly would not, if I could but get 
 credit for £1000 for three or four years. Could you not assist 
 me in that way, on the security of the book, and of an assign- 
 ment to one half of my rents, £700, which, upon my honour, 
 are always due, and would be forthcoming in the case of my 
 decease. I 'Will not sell till I have your answer as to this." 
 
 Mr, Malone did not reply. On the 25th Boswell made a 
 new proposal. After referring to a severe attack of melancholy 
 which had lately oppressed him, he proceeds : — 
 
 " I am in a distressing perplexity how to decide as to the 
 property of my book. You must know that I am certainly 
 informed that a certain person, who delights in mischief, has 
 been depreciating it, so that I fear the sale of it may be very 
 dubious. 2\vo quartos and two guineas sound in an alarming 
 manner. I believe in my present frame I should accept even 
 of £500, for I suspect that were I now to talk to Eobinson, I 
 should find him not disposed to give £1000. Did he absolutely 
 offer it, or did he only express himself so as that you concluded 
 he would give it ? The pressing circumstance is that I must 
 lay down £1000 by the 1st of May on account of the purchase
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 171 
 
 of land, which my old family enthusiasm urged me to make- 
 You, I doubt not, have full confidence in my honesty. May 
 I then ask you if you could venture to join with me in a boi)d 
 for that sum, as then I would take my chance, and as Sir 
 Joshua says, Game with my book ? Upon my honour, your 
 telling me that you cannot comply with what I propose will 
 not in the least surprise me, or make any manner of difference 
 as to my opinion of your friendship. I mean to ask Sir Joshua 
 if he will join ; for, indeed, I should be vexed to sell my 
 magnum opus for a great deal less than its intrinsic value. I 
 meant to publish on Shrove Tuesday, but if I can get out 
 within the month of March I shall be satisfied." 
 
 Sir Joshua Eeynolds and Mr. Malone both declined pecuniary 
 responsibility, but Boswell was nevertheless relieved from his 
 embarrassments. He obtained in Scotland a loan of £600 on 
 the credit of his rents, and Dilly and Baldwin made an advance 
 on the credit of his book. "Writing to Mr. Malone on the 8th 
 March, he excuses that gentleman's unwillingness to incur 
 monetary risk, and elated in having overcome the pressure of 
 his creditors, he resolves to keep the property of his book, 
 " believing that he should not repent it." There is a new 
 grievance : — 
 
 "You would observe," he writes, " some stupid lines on Mr. 
 Burke in the ' Oracle ' by Mr. Boswell. I instantly wrote to 
 Mr. Burke, expressing my indignation at such impertinence, 
 and had next morning a most obliging answer. Sir William 
 Scott told me I could have no legal redress. So I went civillij 
 to Bell, and he promised to mention handsomely that James 
 Bostvell, Esq., was not the author of the lines. The note, how- 
 ever, on the subject, was a second impertinence. But I can do 
 nothing. I wish Fox, in his bill upon libels, would make a 
 heavy penalty the consequence of forging any person's name 
 to any composition, which in reality such a trick amounts to." 
 
 Four days after conveying to INIr. Malone the tidings of his
 
 172 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL, 
 
 Ills deliverance from pecuniary troubles, Bos well condoles witli 
 his friend, in his lottery ticket having drawn a blank, since had 
 a prize turned up, he would have expected the accommoda- 
 tion of a loan ! He proceeds : — 
 
 " As it is, I shall, as I wrote to you, be enabled to weather 
 my difhculties for some time ; but I am still in great anxiety 
 about the sale of my book. I find so many people shake their 
 heads at the two quartos and tiuo guineas. Courtenay is clear 
 that I should sound Eobinson and accept of a thousand guineas, 
 if he will give that sum. Meantime, the title-page must be 
 made as good as may be. It appears to me that mentioning 
 his studies, works, conversations, and letters, is not sufficient ; 
 and I would suggest comprehending an account, in chrono- 
 logical order, of his studies, works, friendships, acquaintances, 
 and other particulars ; his conversation with eminent men ; a 
 series of his letters to various persons ; also several original pieces 
 of his compositions never before published. The whole, &c. 
 You will probably be able to assist me in expressing my idea 
 and arranging the parts. In the advertisement I intend to 
 mention the letter to Lord Chesterfield, and perhaps the 
 interview with the King, and the names of the correspondents, 
 in alphabetical order. . . Do you know that my bad spirits 
 are returned upon me to a certain degree; and such is the 
 sickly fondness for change of place, and imagination of relief, 
 that I sometimes think you are happier by being in Dublin, 
 than one is in this great metropolis, where hardly any man 
 cares for another. I am persuaded I should relish your Irish 
 dinners very much. I have at length got "chambers in the 
 Temple, in the very staircase where Johnson lived, and when 
 my magnum ojms is fairly launched, then shall I make a trial." 
 
 In his letter to Mv. Temple of the 2ud April, Boswell refers 
 to his forthcoming work in these terms : — 
 
 " ISIy ' Life of Johnson ' is at last drawing to a close. I am 
 correcting tlie last sheet. . . I really hope to publish it on 
 the 25th current. ... I am at present in such bad spirits
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 173 
 
 that I have every fear concerning it — tliat I may get no profit, 
 nay, may lose— that the public may he disappointed, and think 
 that I have done it poorly — that I may make many enemies, 
 and even have quarrels. But, perhaps, the very reverse of all 
 this may happen." 
 
 Boswell adds in reference to his professional aspirations : — 
 
 "When my book is launched I shall, if I am alone and in 
 tolerable health and spirits, have some furniture put into my 
 chambers in the Temple, and force myself to sit there some 
 hours a day, and to attend regularly in Westminster Hail. The 
 chambers cost me £20 yearly, and I may reckon furniture and 
 a lad to attend them occasionally £20 more. I doubt whether 
 I shall get fees equal to the expense." 
 
 On the 19th April, Boswell thus wrote to his friend ]\Ir. 
 Dempster : — 
 
 " We must not entirely lose sight of one another, or rather, 
 we must not suffer ' out of sight out of mind ' to be applicable to 
 two such old friends, who have always lived pleasantly together, 
 though of principles directly opposite. ... I some time 
 ago resigned my Eecordership of Carlisle. I perceived that no 
 advantage would accrue from it. I could satisfy you in conver- 
 sation that I was right. The melancholy event of losing my 
 valuable wife will, I fear, never allow me to have real comfort. 
 You cannot imagine how it hangs upon my spirits ; yet I can 
 talk and write, and, in short, force myself to a wonderfid degree. 
 I enclose you a poem which I have published upon a subject on 
 which I never heard your sentiments, but 1 could lay my life 
 you are one of the pretty theorists ; however, you will have can- 
 dour enough to allow that I have worked well. I have a good 
 house in Great Portland Street. My two eldest daughters live 
 with me ; my youngest is at a boarding-school at Chelsea ; my 
 eldest son is at Eton ; my second at Westminster. I am sadly 
 straitened in my circumstances; I can but exist as to expense; 
 but they are so good to me here that I have a full share of the 
 metropolitan advantages.
 
 174 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 " My viagnum opus, the ' Life of Dr. Johnson,' in two volumes, 
 quarto, is to be published on Monday, 16th May. It is too great 
 a book to be given in presents, as I gave my ' Tour,' so you must 
 not expect one, though you yourself form a part of its multi- 
 farious contents. I really think it will be the most entertaining 
 collection that has appeared in this age. When it is fairly 
 launched, I mean to stick close to "Westminster Hall, and it will 
 be truly kind if you recommend me appeals or causes of any 
 sort." 
 
 Boswell's poem on the Slave-trade, to which he refers, was 
 either at once withdrawn from circulation, or was, on his decease, 
 suppressed by his family. It is unknown to bibliographers. 
 The " Life of Johnson," in two quarto volumes, was issued 
 about the middle of May from the publishing house of Mr. 
 Charles Dilly. The title-page, which the author had laboured 
 to render attractive, was thus inscribed : — 
 
 "The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D., comprehending an 
 Account of his Studies and numerous Works, in chronological 
 order ; a series of his Epistolary Correspondence and Conversa- 
 tions with many eminent persons ; and various Original Pieces 
 of his composition, never before published. The whole exhibit- 
 ing a view of literature and literary men in Great Britain, for 
 more than half a century, during which he flourished, in two 
 volumes, by James Boswell, Esq. 2 vols., 4to. London : Printed 
 by Thomas Baldwin for Charles Dilly, in the Poultry, 1791." 
 
 The following passages from the Dedication to Sir Joshua 
 Pteynolds are characteristic of the writer : — 
 
 " If there be a pleasure in celebrating the distinguished merit 
 of a contemporary mixed with a certain degree of vanity not 
 altogether inexcusable in appearing fully sensible of it, where 
 can I find one in complimenting whom I can with more general 
 approbation gratify those feelings." deferring to his Tour to 
 the Hebrides, the author proceeds : " In one respect this work
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 175 
 
 "will in some passages be different from the former. In my 
 ' Tour ' I was almost unboundedly open in my communications ; 
 and from my eagerness to display the wonderful fertility and 
 readiness of Johnson's wit, freely showed to the v/orld its 
 dexterity even when I was myself the object of it. I trusted 
 that I should be liberally understood as knowing very well 
 what I was about, and by no means as simply unconscious of 
 the pointed effects of the satire. I own indeed that I was arro- 
 gant enough to suppose that the tenor of the rest of the book 
 would sufficiently guard me against such a strange imputation. 
 But it seems I judged too well of the world; for, though I could 
 scarcely believe it, I have been undoubtedly informed that many 
 persons especially in distant quarters, not penetrating enough 
 into Johnson's character, so as to understand his mode of 
 treating his friends, have arraigned my judgment instead of 
 seeing that I was sensible of all that they could observe. It is 
 related of the great Dr. Clarke that when, in one of his leisure 
 hours, he was unbending himself with a few friends in the most 
 playful and frolicksome manner, he observed Beau Nash ap- 
 proaching, upon which he suddenly stopped. ' My boys (said 
 he) let us be grave ; here comes a fool.' The world, my friend, 
 I have found to be a great fool, as to that particular on which 
 it has become necessary to speak very plainly. I have therefore 
 in this work been more reserved ; and though I tell nothing but 
 the truth, I have still kept in my mind that the whole truth is 
 not always to be exposed. This, however, I have managed so 
 as to occasion no diminution of the pleasure which my book 
 should afford, though malignity may sometimes be disappointed 
 of its gratifications." 
 
 In this manner Bos well disposes of Dr.Wolcott and the other 
 satirists who had made merry at his " Tour." Though published 
 at the price of two guineas, the success of the "Life" was 
 immediate. It was eagerly sought after, and everywhere read. 
 Even those who were indifferent about Johnson, and who 
 despised his biographer, added the work to their library, and
 
 176 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 were amused by its chit chat* Writing to ]\Ir. Temple on the 
 22nd August, Boswell reported that twelve hundred copies were 
 in circulation, and that he expected that the entire impression 
 of seventeen hundred copies would be sold before Christmas. 
 By the success of his work he was induced to cherish renovated 
 hope; he again dreamed of professional employment. In his 
 letter to Mr. Temple of the 22nd August he writes : — 
 
 " I have gone the full round of the Home Circuit, to which I 
 have returned, finding it much more pleasant ; and though I did 
 not get a single brief do not repent of the expense, as I am 
 showing myself desirous of business and imbibing legal know- 
 ledge." 
 
 On the 22nd November he informed Mr. Temple that he kept 
 chambers open in the Temple ; and attended in Westminster 
 Hall ; but had not the least prospect of business. 
 
 After attending Westminster Hall for two years Boswell was 
 employed in a case of appeal to the House of Peers. He had 
 no other brief. In the autumn of 1791 he resided several 
 weeks at Auchinleck. Eeturning to London in November he 
 thus reported himself to his friend at Mamhead : — 
 
 " I had a very unhappy time in Ayrshire. My house at 
 Auchinleck seemed deserted and melancholy ; and it brought 
 upon my mind, with unusual force, the recollection of my having 
 lost my dear and valuable wife. My London spirits were soon 
 exhausted ; I sank into languor and gloom ; I found myself 
 very unfit to transact business with my tenants, or, indeed, 
 with anybody. To escape from what I felt at Auchinleck I 
 visited a good deal, but alas ! I could not escape from myself : 
 in short, you may see that I was exceedingly ill. I hoped to 
 be restored when I got to London, but my depression of spirits 
 has continued, and still, though I go into jovial scenes, I feel 
 no pleasure in existence, except the mere gratification of the 
 
 * See "Life of William Wilberforce/' Loud., 1838. Vol. iii., pp. 
 G.3, 70.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 177 
 
 senses. Oh, my fneud, this is sad. I have imagined tluit 
 I was quite unable to write a letter. . . , My spirits have 
 been still more sunk by seeing Sir Joshua Eeynolds almost as 
 low as myself. He has for more than two months past hail 
 a pain in his blind eye, the effect of which has been to occasion 
 a weakness in the other, and he broods over the dismal appre- 
 hension of becoming quite blind. . . I force myself to be a 
 great deal with him, to do what is in my power to amuse 
 him. . . . This is a desponding, querulous letter, which 
 I have wished these several weeks to write. Pray try to do 
 me some good." 
 
 Boswell's correspondence with Mr. Temple in 1792 has, one 
 short note excepted, not been preserved. It is probable that 
 most of his spare hours were devoted to the revision of his 
 " Life of Johnson," of which the second edition appeared in the 
 following year. 
 
 In October, 1792, the parish of Auchinleck became vacant by 
 the death of Mr. Dun. Though upholding as part of his 2'>'^i'>"^otic 
 creed, that with negroes abroad the unlanded population at 
 home should be denied political or other privileges, Boswell 
 was not unwilling to obtain acceptance with the common people. 
 As patron of Auchinleck parish he assured the parishioners 
 that he would consult their wishes in planting the vacant 
 cure. On this subject he thus communicated with j\Ir. Temple 
 on the 26th February, 1793:— 
 
 " I am within a few hours of setting out for Auchinleck, 
 honest David having secured me a place in the Carlisle coach 
 to Ferry Bridge that I may have an opportunity to stop should 
 I be too much fatigued. It is quite right that I should now go 
 down. The choice of a minister to a worthy parish is a matter 
 of very great importance, and I cannot be sure of the real 
 wishes of the people without being present. Only think, 
 Temple, how serious a duty I am about to discharge ! I, James 
 Boswell, Esq. — you know what vanity that najne includes— I
 
 178 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 have promised to come down on purpose, and his honour's 
 goodness is gratefully acknowledged. Besides, I have several 
 matters of consequence to ray estate to adjust; and though the 
 journey will no doubt be' uncomfortable, and my being alone in 
 that house where once I was so happy, be dreary in a woeful 
 degree, the consciousness of duty, and being busy, will I hope 
 support me. I shall write to you, my friend, from my seat. 
 I am to be there only about three weeks." 
 
 Soon after his arrival in Ayrshire, Boswell presented to the 
 vacant living Mr. John Lindsay, a probationer from Edinburgh. 
 The appointment was not distasteful to the parishioners, lie- 
 turning to the metropolis he issued, in July, the second edition 
 of his " Life of Johnson," in three octavo volumes ; it contained 
 " eight sheets of additional matter," and was improved other- 
 wise. In the Advertisement he wrote as follows : — 
 
 "It seems to me in my moments of self-complacency, that 
 this extensive biographical work, however inferior in tlie nature, 
 may in one respect be assimilated to the ' Odyssey.* Amidst a 
 thousand entertaining and instructive episodes, the hero is never 
 long out of sight, for they are all in some degree connected with 
 him ; and he, in the whole course of the history, is exhibited by 
 the author for the best advantage of his readers : 
 ' Quid virtus et quid sapientia possit. 
 Utile proposuit nobis exemplar Ulyssera.' 
 Should there be any cold-blooded or morose mortals who really 
 dislike this book I will give them a story to apply. AVhen the 
 great Duke of Marlborough, accompanied by Lord Cadogan, M'as 
 one day reconnoitring the army in Flanders, a heavy rain came 
 on and they both called for their cloaks. Lord Cadogan's 
 servant, a good-humoured, alert lad, brought his lordship's in a 
 minute ; the Duke's servant, a lazy, sulky dog, was so sluggish 
 that his Grace, being wet to the skin, reproved him, and had for 
 an answer, with a grunt, ' I came as fast as I could ; ' upon 
 which the Duke calmly said, ' Cadogan ! I would not for a 
 thousand pounds have that fellow's temper.' "
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL, 179 
 
 " There are some men I believe, wlio have, or think they have, 
 a very small share of vanity. Such may speak of their literary 
 fame in a decorous style of diffidence ; but I confess that I am 
 so formed by nature and by habit that to restrain the expression 
 of delight on having obtained such fame, to me would be truly 
 painful. Why, then, should I suppress it ? Why, out of the 
 ' abundance of the heart,' should I not speak ? Let me then 
 mention, with a warm but no insolent exultation, that I have 
 been regaled with spontaneous praise of my work by many and 
 various persons eminent for their rank, learning, talents, and 
 accomplishments, much of which praise I leave under their 
 hands to be reposited in my archives at Auchinleck. An 
 honourable and reverend friend, speaking of the favourable 
 reception of my volume, even in the circles of fashion and 
 elegance, said to me, ' You have made them all talk Johnson.' 
 Yes, I may add, I have Johnsonizccl the land ; and I trust they 
 will not only talk, but think Johnson." 
 
 No sooner was the second edition of his work on the pub- 
 lisher's shelves than Boswell was again involved in the meshes 
 of dissipation. Sauntering forth, quite drunk, he was knocked 
 down and robbed. Some weeks after the event he commu- 
 nicated with Mr. Temple as follows : — 
 
 " Behold my hand ! The robbery is only of a few shillings, 
 but the cut on my head and bruises on my arms were sad things, 
 and confined me to my bed iii pain and fever and helplessness, 
 as a child many days. By means of surgeon Earle and apothe- 
 cary Devaynes, I am now, I thank God, pretty well. This, 
 however, shall be a crisis in my life. I trust I shall henceforth 
 be a sober, regular man. Indeed, my indulgence in wine has, of 
 late years especially, been excpssive. You remember what Lord 
 Eliot said, nay, what you, I am sorry to think, have seen. Your 
 sufo-estion as to my being carried off in a state of intoxication 
 is awful. I thank you for it, my dear friend. It impressed me 
 much, I assure you." 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Temple, dated 31st May, 1794, Boswell 
 
 a-^'ain expresses his appreciation of his friend's remonstrances:—
 
 180 MEMOIR OF JAMES EOSWELL. 
 
 " I thank you sincerely for your friendly admonition on my 
 frailty in indulging so much in wine. I do resolve anew to be 
 upon my guard, as I am sensible how very pernicious as well 
 as disreputable such a habit is. How miserably have I yielded 
 to it in various years. Eecollect what General Paoli said to 
 you — recollect what happened to Berwick." 
 
 A constitution naturally robust had been severely taxed. 
 Boswell imbibed liquor of all sorts, and like other dissipated 
 persons, fell into bouts of drinking. When he partially 
 abstained, he unconsciously prepared himself for inebriate 
 practices of a more aggravated character. At length he became 
 a victim to these social excesses. Early in the spring of 1795, 
 Mr. Temple, junior, then an inmate of Boswell's house, wrote to 
 his father : " A few nights ago Mr. Boswell returned from the 
 Literary Club quite weak and languid." Such is our first inti- 
 mation of an illness, which terminated fatally. About the 
 beginning of April he commenced a letter to Mr. Temple in 
 these words: — "My dear Temple, — I would fain w^rite to you 
 in my own hand, but really cannot." Boswell dropped the pen, 
 which was taken up by his son James, who thus wrote to his 
 dictation : — 
 
 " Alas, my friend, what a state is this ! My son James is to 
 write for me what remains of this letter, and I am to dictate. 
 The pain which continued for so many weeks was very severe 
 indeed, and when it went off I thought myself quite well ; but 
 I soon felt a conviction that I was by no means as I should be — 
 so exceedingly weak, as my miserable attempt to write to you 
 affords a full proof. All, then, that can be said is, that 1 must 
 wait with patience." 
 
 After referring to Mr, Temple's own indisposition, Boswell 
 concludes by representing himself as " a good deal stronger," 
 and subscribing himself" here and hereafter " his correspondent's 
 " affectionate friend." A postscript, added by James Boswell,
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 181 
 
 jim, informed Mr. Temple that his father was ignorant of his 
 ''dangerous situation." The letter was kept up, and another 
 addition, dated 8th April, represented the patient as " in a state 
 of extraordinary pain and weakness," but as " havin" a cood 
 deal recovered." 
 
 The improvement was temporary. After a few days Boswell 
 suffered a relapse. On the 17th April, his younger son wrote to 
 Mr. Temple as follows : — 
 
 " My father desires me to tell you that on Tuesday evening 
 he was taken ill with a fever, attended with a severe shivering 
 and violent headache, disorder in his stomach and throwing up ; 
 he has been close confined to bed ever since. He thinks himself 
 better to-day, but cannot conjecture when he shall recover. His 
 affection for you remains the same. You will receive a long and 
 full letter from him." 
 
 On the 4th of May, David Boswell communicated to Mr. 
 Temple that his brother was in " the most imminent danger." 
 On the 18th of the same month, James Boswell, jun., reported 
 that his father was " considerably worse," and that there were 
 " little or no hopes of his recovery." Next day David Boswell 
 reported to Mr. Temple that the end had come : — 
 
 " I have now," he writes, " the painful task of informing you 
 that my dear brother expired this morning at two o'clock : we 
 have both lost a kind and affectionate friend, and I shall never 
 have such another. He has suffered a great deal during his ill- 
 ness, which has lasted live weeks, but not much in his last 
 moments." 
 
 Boswell died in his house in Great Portland Street, on the 
 19th May, 1795. He had reached his fifty-fifth year. In the 
 June number of the Gentleman's Magazine his friends, TNIessrs. 
 Courtenay and Malone, presented estimates of his character. 
 Mr. Courtenay wrote thus : — 
 
 " Good nature was highly predominant in his character. He
 
 182 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 appeared to entertain sentiments of benevolence to all mankind, 
 and it does not seem to me that he ever did or could injiu-e any 
 human being intentionally. His conversational talents were 
 always pleasing and often fascinating. He was a Johnson in 
 everything but manner; and there were few of Dr. Johnson's 
 friends that were not very ready to dispense with tJiat. His 
 attachment to the Doctor for so long a period was a meritorious 
 perseverance in the desire of knowledge." Admitting that his 
 social habits had shortened his life, Mr. Courtenay adds, — 
 " As his belief in Eevelation was unshaken, and his religious 
 impressions were deep and recurring frequently, let us hope 
 that he has now attained that state from which imperfection 
 and calamity are alike excluded." 
 
 From the misrepresentations of a journalist Mr. Malone 
 vindicated the memory of his friend in these words : — 
 
 "The most important misrepresentation is that Mr. Boswell 
 was convivial without being social ox friendly, — a falsehood which 
 all who knew him intimately can peremptorily contradict. He 
 had not only an inexhaustible fund of good humour and good 
 nature, but was extremely warm in his attachments, and as ready 
 to exert himself for his friends as any man." After claiming for 
 Boswell " considerable intellectual powers," he concludes, — " He 
 will long be regretted by a wide circle of friends, to whom his 
 good qualities and social talents always made his company a 
 valuable accession; and by none more sincerely than by the 
 present vindicator of his fame." 
 
 In the same number of the Gentleman's Magazine, a corres- 
 pondent, subscribing himself " M. Green," states that Boswell 
 contemplated the publication of a quarto volume, to be em- 
 bellished with plates on the controversy occasioned by the 
 Begyar's Opera. "With this particular view," he adds, "he 
 lately paid several visits to the present truly humane ' governor 
 of Newgate,' pJ'^he ordinarily styled Mr. Kirby." 
 
 In a subsequent number of the Gentleman's Magazine,
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 183 
 
 Mr. Temple, under the signature of " Biographicus," denied a 
 statement by Mr. Malone that Boswell was of a melancholy tem- 
 perament ; he maintained that he was quite otherwise prior to 
 his attachment to Dr. Johnson. J. B. Pi., another writer in tlie 
 same magazine, remarked that the deceased " had many failings 
 and many virtues and many amiable qualities, which pre- 
 dominated over the frailties incident to human nature." 
 
 Boswell's Will, written with his own hand, and bearing date 
 28th May, 1785, was found in his repositories. It is now 
 printed for the first time.* Had it earlier been made public the 
 testator might have encountered " less obloquy," and obtained 
 greater praise. Seldom has Scottish landlord evinced greater 
 consideration for his tenantry and domestics. The document is 
 as follows : — 
 
 " I James Boswell Esquire of Auchinleck having already 
 settled everything concerning my Landed Estate so far as is 
 in my power as an heir of Entail, so that my mind is quiet 
 respecting my dear wife and children, do now when in perfect 
 soundness of mind but under the apprehension of some danger 
 to my life which however may prove a false alarm, thus make 
 my last Will and Testament containing also clauses of another 
 nature which I desire may be valid and effectual. I resign my 
 soul to God my almighty and most mercifid Eather trusting 
 that it will be redeemed by the awfull and mysterious Sacrifice 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ and admitted to endless felicity in 
 heaven. I request that my body may be interred in the family 
 burial place in the church of Auchinleck. I appoint my nuich 
 valued spouse Mrs. JMargaret Montgomerie and my worthy 
 friend Sir William Eorbes of Pitsligo, Baronet, to be my Execu- 
 tors and in case of the death of either of them the office shall 
 devolve solely to the survivor. And whereas my honoured and 
 pious grand mother Lady Elizabeth Boswell devised to the heir 
 
 * from the Commissariat Eegistor of Glasgow, preserved in tlio 
 General Register House, Edinburgh, vol. 74, p. 19 i.
 
 184 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 succeeding to the barrony of Auchinleck from generation to 
 generation the Ebony Cabinet and the dressing plate of silver 
 gilt, which belonged to her mother Veronica, Countess of Kin- 
 cardine, leaving it however optional to her son my father that 
 entail thereof or not as he should think fit, and he having 
 neglected to do so, whereby the said Ebony Cabinet and dressing 
 plate are now at my free disposal, I do by these presents dispose 
 the same to the heir succeeding to the barrony of Auchinleck 
 from generation to generation. And I declare that it shall 
 not be in the power of any such heir to alienate or impignorate 
 the same on any account whatever. And I do hereby dispose to 
 the said heirs of Entail in their order, all lands and heritages 
 belonging to me, in fee simple, after payment of my debts, but 
 under this provision, that in case any of them shall alienate the 
 said Ebony Cabinet and dressing plate, the person so alienating 
 shall forfeit the sum of One Thousand Pounds sterling, which 
 shall be paid to the next heir succeeding by entail. And I 
 declare that the heir of Entail first succeeding to these my 
 unentailed lands, shall within six months after his succession 
 thereto execute a deed of Entail thereof to the same series 
 of heirs with that in the Entail executed by my Father and me, 
 which if he fails to do they shall then go to the next heir 
 of Entail, and it is also an express condition that he shall 
 divest himself of the fie thereof and reserve only his life-rent. 
 I mean this to apply to the said first succeeding heir. Further- 
 more as my late honoured Father made a very curious collec- 
 tion of the classics and other books, which it is desireable 
 should be preserved for ever in the family of Auchinleck, 
 I do by these presents dispose to the successive heirs of 
 Entail of the barrony of Auchinleck " [here there is a word 
 torn off] " Greek and Latin books, as also all manu- 
 scripts of whatever kind, lying in the house of Auchinleck, 
 under the same conditions and under the same forfeiture 
 as I have mentioned with regard to the Ebony Cabinet 
 and dressing plate, and all my other moveable Estate or 
 Executory I leave equally among my other children, the fur- 
 niture in the house of Auchinleck to be valued by two sworn
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 185 
 
 appreazers, and the heir to keep it at tliat value and pay tlie 
 same to my younger children, excepting however all my 
 pictures which I dispose to the said successive heirs of Entail 
 under the same conditions and forfeiture as above mentioned, 
 and excepting also the furniture in my house at P^dinburgh 
 which I bequeath to my dear wife. I bequeath one hundred 
 pounds sterling to my dear brother Thomas David Boswell 
 Esquire banker in London, to purchase a piece of plate to keep 
 in remembrance of me in his family and to my dear brother 
 Lieutenant John Boswell being a batchelor, I bequeath Pifty 
 Guineas to purchase a ring or whatever other thing he may 
 like best to keep for my sake. To my friends the Reverend 
 Mr. Temple in Cornwall, John Johnston Esquire of Grange, 
 Sir John Dick Baronet, Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, 
 Baronet, Captain John Macbryde of the Koyal Navy, and ]\Ir. 
 Charles Dilly of London, bookseller, Alexander Fairlie of 
 Fairlie, Esq. and Edmund Malone Esq. of the kingdom 
 of Ireland, The Hon. Colonel James Stewart and George 
 Dempster Esquire, I bequeath each a gold mourning ring, and 
 I hereby leave to the said Sir William Forbes, the Reverend 
 Mr. Temple and Edmund Malone Esquire all my manuscripts 
 of my own composition, and all my letters from various persons 
 to be published for the benefit of my younger children, as they 
 shall decide, that is to say they are to have a discretionary power 
 to publish more or less. I leave to Mr. James Bruce my over- 
 seer Twenty Pounds yearly during his life and if he shall 
 continue to reside at Auchinleck I leave to him the house he 
 now possesses with his meal and all other perquisites. And to 
 Mrs. Bell Bruce my housekeeper I leave Ten pounds yearly 
 during her life with two pecks of meal weekly in case of her 
 not liveing in the family of Auchinleck. Lastly, as there are 
 upon the estate of Auchinleck several tenants whose families 
 have possessed their farms for many generations, I do by these 
 presents grant leases for nineteen years and their respective 
 lifetimes of their present farms to John Templeton in Iloplaiid, 
 James Murdoch in Blackstown commonly called the Raw, 
 James Peden in Old Byre, William Samson in Mill of Auchin-
 
 186 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 leek, Jolin Hircl in Hirdstown, William Murdoch in Willocks 
 town, and to any of the sons of the late James Caldow in Stivens- 
 town whom the ministers and elders of Auchinleck shall 
 approve of, a lease of that farm in the above terms, the rents to 
 be fixed by two men to be mutually chosen by the laird of 
 Auchinleck for the time and each tenant. I also grant a lease in 
 the like terms to Andrew Dairy mple in Mains of Auchinleck, 
 my Baron officer. And I do beseech all the succeeding heirs of 
 Entail to be kind to the Tenants and not to turn out old pos- 
 sessors to get a little more rent. And in case my nomination of 
 Tutors and Curators to my children being written upon 
 unstamped paper should not be valid, I here again constitute 
 and appoint my dear wife, Mrs. Margaret Montgomerie and my 
 worthy friend Sir William Forbes of Pitsligo, or the survivor of 
 them, to the said office with all usual powers and with the 
 recommendations contained in the said unstamped deed. In 
 witness whereof, these presents written with my own hand (of 
 which I consent to the registration in the books of Council and 
 Session that they may have full effect and thereto constitute 
 my procurators) are subscribed by me at London this twenty 
 eight day of May, One thousand Seven hundred and Eighty five, 
 before these witnesses Mr. Edward Dilly bookseller there, and 
 IVIr. John JSTormaville his clerk, (signed) James Boswell. Chs. 
 Dilly witness, John Normaville witness." 
 
 The three persons nominated as literary executors did not 
 meet, and the entire business of the trust was administered by 
 Sir William Forbes,. Bart., who appointed as his law agent 
 Eobert Boswell, writer to the signet, cousin german of the 
 deceased. By that gentleman's advice, Boswell's manuscripts 
 were left to the disposal of his family; and it is believed 
 that the whole were immediately destroyed. The Commonijlace 
 Book escaped, having been incidentally sold among the printed 
 books. 
 
 The following inventory of Boswell's moveable effects, pre-
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 187 
 
 sented for registration in the Commissariat llegister is not 
 without interest : 
 
 " In the first place there pertained and belonged to the said 
 defunct at the time aforesaid of his death, the articles after- 
 mentioned of the values underwritten, whereof the Executor 
 herein gives up in inventary the sum of Twenty Shillings 
 sterling of the value of each article viz., Imprimis Four hundred 
 and eighty three pounds fourteen shillings as the amount of 
 sales of furniture books pictures &c. in the defunct's house 
 in London. Item, Five hundred and Seventy six pound.s eight 
 shillings and two pence as the value of furniture in the house 
 of Auchinleck estimated by two sworn appraisers. Item, One 
 hundred and five pounds as the value of silver plate at 
 Auchinleck exclusive of the family plate devised to the heir 
 estimated at or near the bullion value. Item, One hundred 
 pounds supposed about the value of the books at Aucliin- 
 leck per catalogue in the hands of the Executor exclusive of 
 Greek and Latin classics and manuscripts there, also left to 
 the heir. Item, Seventy seven pounds three shillings as the 
 value of cattle and stocking at Auchinleck per estimate in 
 the hands of the Executor. Item, Three hundred pounds as 
 the value of the remaining copies of the Life of D""- Johnson 
 written by the defunct and sold to Mr. Dilly bookseller. 
 And One hundred pounds as the supposed value of manuscripts 
 left by the defunct. 
 
 "In the second place there was indebted and owing to the 
 said defunct at the time aforesaid of his death, the sums of 
 money after mentioned for the reasons after specified, viz., One 
 Pound sterling part of the sum of Ninety Seven Pounds eight 
 shillings and Eleven pence sterling being a balance of cash in 
 the hands of Mr Thomas David IJoswell brother to the defunct 
 per accompt. Item, One pound sterling, part of the sum of Ninety 
 one pounds sixteen shillings and six pence being a claim Mr 
 Alexander Boswell the heir for cash advanced to him by :Mr 
 Thomas David Boswell at the time of the defunct's death and 
 credited to Mr Thomas David Boswell in his account with tlie 
 Executor. Item, One poimd Sterling part of the .sum of Two
 
 188 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 hundred and twenty five pounds fourteen shillings and three 
 pence as arrears of rent of the estate of Auchiuleck for 
 accounts trausniLtted by the factor. Item, One pound sterling 
 part of the sum of Nine hundred and forty two pounds six 
 shillings and seven pence sterling as the claim against the heirs 
 of said estate under the Entail act for three fourths of the 
 defunct's expenditure in improving the Entailed estate bearing 
 interest from Martinmas seventeen hundred and ninety five. 
 Item, One pound sterling, part of the sum of nine hundred and 
 fifty pounds sterling as half a year's rent of said estate due to 
 the Executor by law for the year Seventeen hundred and ninety 
 five, being the year in which the defunct died per rental 
 furnished by the factor. Item, one Pound sterling part of the 
 sum of forty two pounds nine shillings and one penny being a 
 balance of account due by Mr Dilly, bookseller. Item, One 
 pound sterling, part of the sum of six hundred and eighty four 
 pounds sixteen shillings and eight pence being debt due by ' 
 Captn Bruce Boswell of Calcutta of Principal and Interest paid 
 to the Executor since the defunct's death. Item, One pound 
 sterling, part of the sum of one hundred and ninety five 
 pounds sterling being a balance of debt due by the Trustees 
 of the late Mr Johnston of Grange, as stated by the defunct 
 in a holograph view of his affairs made out by him, as at tlie 
 first day of January Seventeen hundred and ninety five. And 
 One pound sterling, part of the sum of seven hundred pounds 
 sterling and upwards of debts due from various turnpike roads 
 in Ayrshire for money advanced by the late Lord Auchinleck." 
 
 In the terms of his Will, Boswell's remains were conveyed to 
 Auchinleck, and there deposited in the family vault. Eobert 
 Boswell proposed that a memorial tablet should be placed at his 
 grave and offered the following metrical inscription : — 
 
 " Here Boswell lies ! drop o'er his tomb a tear, 
 Let no malignant tongue pursue him here ; 
 Bury his failings in the silent grave. 
 And from unfriendly hands his memoiy save.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. IS'J 
 
 Eecord the praise he purchased, let his name 
 IMount on the wings of literary fame, 
 And to his honour say, — ' Hero Uosvvell lies, 
 Whose pleasing pen adorned the good and wise, 
 Whose memory down the stream of time shall flow 
 Far as famed Johnson's or Paoli's go ! '" 
 
 Eobert Boswell's proposal was not entertained, and the 
 preceding epitaph was found among his papers after his own 
 decease many years subsequently. By his descendants the 
 memory of Johnson's biographer has not been honoured, yet the 
 family of Boswell, with a pedigree dating from the Conquest, 
 cannot point to a more distinguished kinsman. 
 
 The marriage of persons nearly related by blood is apt to 
 engender cerebral weakness in the offspring. The first-born of 
 cousins-german, James Boswell suffered from an imperfect and 
 morbid organization. Mr. Carlyle's analysis of his mental condi- 
 tion we cordially accept, "The highest [quality], writes Mr. Carlyle 
 lay side by side with the lowest, not morally combined with 
 it and spiritually transfiguring it, but tumbling in half-mechani- 
 cal juxtaposition with it ; and from time to time, as the mad 
 alternative chanced, irradiating it, or eclipsed by it." Around 
 his intellectual nature hovered a dark cloud, while there was 
 light within; the cloud was malformation or disease, but tlie 
 morbid element did not extinguisli the internal fire. Boswell's 
 perceptive power was of the highest order ; he could retain 
 and reproduce scenes and conversations with the naturalness 
 of reality. A literary Pre-Eaffaelite, his observation was acute 
 in proportion as his reflective powers waned or slept; what lie 
 saw and heard he set forth forcibly and without embellishment. 
 The assertion of Lord Macaulay that the " Life of Johnson " 
 was due to the author's weakness requires no serious refutation. 
 Boswell produced the best biography in the language, because
 
 190 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 he was the best fitted for the task. Like the astronomer who 
 points his telescope to the heavens in a darkened room, he 
 concentrated his mental energies on the objects of his reverence, 
 and with photographic accuracy depicted all that he surveyed. 
 In proportion as he failed to develop his own intellectual 
 nature, he succeeded in delineating the intellectual character of 
 others. A mirror true and transparent lay under the opaque 
 cloud, and reflected outward what a healthier intellect had 
 appropriated and transfused. If in respect of mental pheno- 
 mena the figure is admissible — the reflective faculty which is 
 ordinarily concave and thereby receptive, was in the mind of 
 Boswell convex and radiating outwards. The cords which 
 fettered his understanding braced his perception and nerved his 
 memory. He showed strength in weakness. The dry rod 
 budded. The grey ruin was mantled by the green ivy. 
 
 The fool prates unconscious of his folly; the maniac is 
 happy in his chain. Boswell was conscious of his weakness, 
 — hence his habitual melancholy. To Mr. Temple he early 
 spoke of madness existing in his family, and afterwards 
 described himself as partially insane. In his journal he 
 compares his head to a tavern usurped by low punch drinkers, 
 whom he could not displace. Such an unhappy consciousness 
 might have led to reckless perversity, or hopeless inaptitude. 
 In Boswell it stimulated to vmtiring effort, life-long energy. 
 His vanity and vacillation and rashness were attendant on a 
 distempered brain — his literary achievements were the result of 
 a successful conflict with constitutional disorder. 
 
 Boswell lived at a period when social excesses, especially in 
 North Britain, prevailed greatly. Into these excesses he fell, 
 but he freely acknowledged his errors, and sincerely repented. 
 Ambitious of personal honour, he nevertheless promoted sedu- 
 lously the interests of others. A fervid patriot, he was an obliging
 
 MEMOIK OF JAMES BOSWELL. 191 
 
 neighbour, a generous companion, and an unfailing friend. He 
 exercised an abundant hospitality. Angry at times he was 
 easily reconciled, and hastened to forgive. His religious views, 
 long unfixed, were never wholly obscured ; he passed through 
 the ordeals of credulity and scepticism, and at length returning 
 to his old moorings, determined to know nothing but a Saviour 
 crucified. In his Will, prepared within the retirement of liis 
 closet, he made this record of his trust, — "I resign my soul to 
 God, my almighty and most merciful Father, trusting that it 
 will be redeemed by the awful and mysterious sacrifice of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and admitted to eternal felicity in heaven." 
 Dr. Johnson, who knew his weaknesses, commended his piety, 
 and Sir William Forbes, another enlightened judge of human 
 character, has borne concerning him this testimony : — 
 
 " I have known few men who possessed a stronger sense of 
 piety, or more fervent devotion (tinctured no doubt with some 
 little share of superstition, which had probably been in some 
 degree fostered by his habits of intimacy with Dr. Johnson), 
 perhaps not always sufficient to regulate his imagination or 
 direct his conduct, yet still genuine, and founded both in his 
 understanding and his heart."* 
 
 Of BosweU's personal aspects, the full length portrait by Lang- 
 ton, engraved for this volume, is understood to convey a correct 
 representation. Eather above the middle height, and inclined to 
 corpulency, he walked with a stately gait, and in his costume 
 observed the latest fashion. He had a large head, and wore a 
 powdered wig ; his prominent but well set features beamed with 
 perpetual good humour. "It was impossible," remarked a 
 contemporary, " to look in his face without being moved by tlie 
 
 * " Life of James Beattie, LL.D.," by Sir William Forbes, of 
 Pitsligo, Bart., Edinb. 1807, 3 vols., vol. iii., p. 378.
 
 192 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 comicality which always reigned upon it." * He talked much 
 and with i-apidity, but his observant faculty was not apparent 
 to those who only met him in society. 
 
 BosweU left two sons and three daughters ; James, the younger 
 son, entered Brazenose CoUege, Oxford, of which he was elected 
 a fellow upon the Yinerian foundation. He was afterwards 
 called to the English Bar, and became a Commissioner of 
 Bankruptcy. An accomplished scholar and of industrious 
 habits, he was by Mr. Malone appointed his literary executor. 
 Under his care appeared Mr. Malone's enlarged edition of 
 Shakespeare, completed in 1S21, in twenty-one octavo volumes. 
 In the first volume he defended, in an able and ingenious essay, 
 Mr. Malone's reputation from an attack made on his statements 
 and opinions by a -writer of eminence. He inherited his father's 
 lonhommie and love of sociality. He died unmarried in the 
 Jkliddle Temple, London, on the 24th February, 1822, aged forty- 
 three ; his remains were deposited in the Temple Church. By 
 his elder brother his death was lamented in these lines, — 
 
 " There is a pang when kindred spirits part, 
 And cold philosophy we must disown ; 
 There is a thrilling spot in every heart, 
 For pulses beat not from a heart of stone. 
 
 " Boswell, th' allotted earth has closed on thee, 
 
 Thy mild but generous warmth has passed away : 
 A finer spirit never death set free, 
 
 And now the friend we honour'd is but clay. 
 
 " His was the triumph of the heart and mind. 
 
 His was the lot which few are blessed to know : 
 More proved, more valued — fervent, yet so kind. 
 He never lost one friend, nor found one foe." 
 
 ♦ Statement of Mr. TTilham Macfarlane, of Edinburgh, to Eobert 
 Chambers. "Traditions of Edinburgh," 1SG9, 12mo., p. 74.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOS WELL. 193 
 
 Alexander Boswell, the biographer's ekler son, succeeded to 
 tlie family estate. He studied at Westminster School, and the 
 University of Oxford ; and, after making the tour of Europe 
 settled at Auchinleck. A lover of historical and antiquarian 
 learning, he established a private printing-press, and reproduced 
 many rare tracts preserved in the family library. Early devoted 
 to poetical composition, he published several volumes of poetry 
 and song. His poems abound in drollery, but are gene- 
 rally fragmentary. Of his songs, "Jenny's Bawbee," "Jenny 
 Dang the Weaver," " The Lass o' Isla," and " Bannocks o' Barley 
 Meal," have long been popular. To public affairs he devoted 
 no inconsiderable attention. He was in the Conservative interest 
 elected M.P. for Ayrshire, and became Colonel of the Yeomanry 
 Cavalry, in the same county. He originated the proposal of 
 erecting a public monument to the poet Burns, on the banks of 
 the Doon, and raised £2,000 on behalf of the undertaking. In 
 1821 his patriotism and public enterprise were rewarded by a 
 Baronetcy. His career terminated under painful circumstances. 
 Indulging a tendency to sarcasm, he published in a Glasgow 
 newspaper a severe pasquiuade against ]\Ir. James Stuart, younger 
 of Danearn, a leader of the liberal party at Ediubm-gh. Chal- 
 lenged by Mr. Stuart to mortal combat, he accepted the cartel, and 
 the parties met at Auchtertool, Eifeshire. Sir Alexander fell, 
 the bullet from his opponent's pistol having entered the middle 
 of the right clavicle, which it severely fractured. He lingered till 
 the following day. His death took place on the 27th March, 1822, 
 and his remains were interred at Auchinleck. In the following 
 verses, John Goldie, an Ayrshire poet, celebrated his obsequies: — 
 
 " ! heard you the trumpet sound sad on the gale, 
 O ! heard you the voice of weejjing aud wail ? 
 ! saw you the horsemen in gallant array, 
 As in sorrow and silence tliey moved on their way. 

 
 194 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 " The people's deep wailing, the trumpet's shrill tone, 
 Were the breathings of sorrow for him that is gone ; 
 And yon dark plumes of death that did mournfully wave, 
 Deck'd the bier that bore on theu' lov'd chief to the grave. 
 
 " When the train of lone mourners arrived at the path, 
 That leads to the desolate mansions of death, 
 O ! marked you each horseman lean sad on his sword, 
 When the corse slowly passed of the chief he adored. 
 
 " And mark'd you each manly heart heave with a sigh ; 
 And mark'd you the tear-drop that gush'd in each eye 
 Of those who were robed in the garments of woe, 
 When they saw him in Death's dreary mansion laid low. 
 
 " Thy halls, Auchinleck ! are all desolate now, 
 Aye ! roll on in sorrow, in solitude flow ; 
 For low lies thy bard who so sweetly did sing, — 
 Thy chieftain so true to his country and king." * 
 
 Sir Alexander married in November, 1799, Grace, fifth 
 daughter of Thomas Gumming, banker, Edinburgh, repre- 
 sentative of the ancient family of Erenside. By this marriage 
 he became father of one son and three daughters. Grace 
 Theresa, the eldest daughter, married Sir William Francis Eliott, 
 Bart., of Stobs, and became mother of the present baronet, 
 with other issue. Grace Jane died in childhood, and Margaret 
 Emily, the youngest daughter, is wife of Major-General Vassall, 
 and resides at Balhary, Perthshire. James, only son of Sir 
 Alexander BosweU, was born in December, 1806. He studied 
 at Brazenose College, Oxford, and after succeeding to Au- 
 chinleck resided chiefly on his estate. In 1830 he espoused 
 his cousin, Jessie Jane, elder daughter of Sir James Montgomery 
 Cunningham, Bart., of Corsehill ; of which marriage were born 
 
 * See the Poetical Works of Sir Alexander Boswell, Bart., with 
 memoir, by Eobert Howie Smith, Glasgow, 1871, 12mo.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 195 
 
 two daughters. In 1850, Sir James BoswcU instituted a legal 
 process to prove the invalidity of the Auchiuleck entail. He 
 was opposed by Thomas Alexander Boswell, of Crawley Grange, 
 next heir-male, but it was held by the judges that as the material 
 word " irredeemably " was written upon an erasure, the entail 
 was inoperative.* Believed from the settlement of 1770, Sir 
 James Boswell bequeathed Auchinleck to his two daughters as 
 co-heiresses. Sir James died in 1857 when the baronetcy 
 became extinct. Julia, his elder daughter, married George 
 Mounsey, solicitor, Carlisle, some time mayor of that city. 
 Emily Harriet, the younger daughter, married in 1873, the Hon. 
 Eichard Wogan Talbot, eldest son of Lord Talbot de IMalahide. 
 The biographer's three daughters were Veronica, Euphemia, 
 and Elizabeth. Veronica, the eldest, survived her father only 
 four months ; she died of consumption on the 2Gth September, 
 1795, aged twenty-three. Euphemia, the second daughter, 
 inherited her father's literary tastes, combined, unhappily, 
 with cerebral weakness. Leaving the protection of her 
 family she fixed her abode in London, resolved on supporting 
 herself as an operatic writer. She composed an Opera for 
 Drury Lane Theatre, which, according to her nai'rative, was 
 accepted by the manager, and was being prepared for the 
 stage, when the theatre was in 1809 destroyed by fire. There- 
 after, she made eleemosynary appeals by private letters and 
 public advertisements. She entreated pecuniary aid from 
 the Lord Chancellor Eldon, the Earl of IMoira, Lord Lonsdale, 
 and Lord Sidmouth. On the death of the Princess Amelia, in 
 1810, she composed a " Soliloquy," which she forwarded to the 
 Prince Eegent, in the belief that she would be rewarded by a 
 pension on the Civil List. From private lodgings in Northum- 
 berland street she in 1811 despatched a missive, setting forth that 
 * Decisions of the Court of Session, 20th March, 1851.
 
 196 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 being " neglected by those bound by the ties of blood to cherish 
 her," she liad " pledged her pianoforte, — though a composer is as 
 much at a. loss for an instrument as a carpenter without his 
 tools." In another letter of the same year she writes, " If 
 dragged to a jail, which must be my fate, I shudder at it, and 
 implore your aid." 
 
 " Let me not suffer Otway's fate, 
 When Nelly's * tears were sent too late : 
 Where Genius pierced through darkest gloom, 
 Though hungry Death has marked his tomb." 
 
 The charge of neglect preferred against her relatives by this 
 unhappy gentlewoman having obtained some credit, we have 
 instituted on the subject a careful inquiry. Euphemia Boswell, 
 we find, was the victim of a diseased imagination. By her 
 relatives she was regarded with affectionate solicitude, while they 
 severely siiffered from her painful hallucinations and groundless 
 complaints. She died about the age of sixty. In her WiU she 
 expressed a desire that her remains should be deposited in West- 
 minster, Abbey near the grave of Dr. Johnson. She was buried 
 elsewhere. She composed a small work which she dedicated to 
 Bishop Porteous ; no copy has been found. 
 
 Elizabeth, the biographer's youngest daughter, married 23rd 
 December, 1799, her second cousin, William Boswell, advocate, 
 who became Sheriff of Berwickshire. Of this marriage were 
 born three sons and one daughter. Eobert Cramond, the eldest 
 son, died in 1821, shortly after being admitted advocate. James 
 Paoli, second son, joined the army, and died in India in 1820 ; 
 r>ruce, the third son, also joined the army, and attained the rank 
 of Colonel. The daughter, Elizabeth Margaret Montgomery, 
 
 * The celebrated Nell Gwynne. who is believed to have trans- 
 mitted a benefaction to the starving poet, which did not reach till 
 after his decease.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 197 
 
 married November, 1849, Jolm Williams, of IT.E.I.C's. Civil 
 Service, Bombay, who died in 1853. Mrs. Eliz£ibetli Boswell 
 died 1st Jamiary, 1814; her husband in January, 1841. On 
 the death of Thomas Alexander Boswell, son of the biographer's 
 brother, Thomas David, in March, 1852,* tlie fine estates of 
 Crawley Grange, Buckinghamshire,! and Astwood, Berkshire, 
 together worth nearly £2,000 per annum, became possessed by 
 Colonel Bruce Boswell, who dying in October, 185G, was suc- 
 ceeded by his sister, who survives. Mrs. Williams was mother 
 of twin sons, who died in infancy; her only surviving child, 
 Elizabeth Anne, was married in 1860 to the Kev. Charles 
 Cumberlye, who assumed the name of Ware on the death 
 of his grand-uncle, Mr. Samuel Ware. Mr. Cumberlye Ware 
 died in May, 1870, and his widow in March, 1871. Their family 
 consist of one son and three daughters. The son, Charles Edward 
 Ware, is precluded by a family settlement from succeeding to 
 the maternal property, and the heiress of Crawley Grange is 
 Edith Caroline, his eldest sister, who, on succession, will 
 assume the name of Boswell. The two younger daughters, 
 Elizabeth Mary and Catherine Augusta, retain the family name 
 of Cumberlye. 
 
 William BosweU, Advocate and Sheriff of Berwicksliire, who 
 married the youngest daughter of the biographer, was eldest of 
 four sons of Eobert Boswell, the biographer's cousin-german, 
 and law agent under his will. Tliis gentleman was born at 
 Auchinleck House, on the 19th January, 1740 ; his father was 
 Dr. John Boswell, younger brother of Lord Auchinleck, and his 
 mother, Anne, daughter of Ptobert Cramond, of Auldbar, Forfar- 
 shire. Eobert Boswell was a writer to the signet, in Edinburgh; 
 
 * The only son of Thomas Alexander Boswell, of Crawley Grange, 
 died in India in bis 18th year, 
 •j- Births Eegister of Auchinleck.
 
 198 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 he subsequently held office as Lyon Depute, and latterly removed 
 to London. Possessed of literary tastes and unflagging industry, 
 he qualified himself to read the Scriptures in the original tongues. 
 He composed hymns, some of which were after his decease 
 printed for private circulation. His metrical epitaph on his 
 cousin, the biographer, has been quoted. Eminently pious, 
 he exhorted publicly. He died at London in April, 1804, 
 in his 6oth year. 
 
 Alexander Boswell, writer to the Signet, second son of 
 Eobert Boswell, was father of the Eev. Eobert Bruce Boswell, 
 chaplain to the Honourable East India Company and minister 
 of St. James's church, Calcutta.* The son of that reverend 
 gentleman, John Alexander Corrie Boswell, held an appoint- 
 ment in the Honourable East India Company's Madras Civil 
 Service ; he died some years ago. His son, Henry St. George 
 Boswell, now resident in London, is male representative of the 
 house of Boswell of Auchinleck. John James, third son of 
 Eobert Boswell, was admitted advocate, but afterwards became 
 a physician, and entered the medical service of the Honourable 
 East India Company ; he latterly sought practice in Edinburgh, 
 where he died in August, 1839. Major John James Boswell, 
 his only surviving son, commands the 2nd Eegiment of Punjaub 
 Infantry, at Dera Ghazee Khan, in India. John Campbell, 
 fourth son of Eobert Boswell, was a physician in India; he 
 died at Penaug, s. p. in October, 1841. Miss Charlotte Maria 
 Tucker, granddaughter of Eobert Boswell, is under her nom de 
 plume, A. L. 0. E., well known for her valuable contributions to 
 religious literature. 
 
 Concerning James Boswell's maternal ancestors, a few 
 
 * The Eev. Eobert Bruce Boswell pubUslied in 1842 a volume of 
 " Psalms and Hymns, chiefly selected," dedicated to Daniel, Lord 
 Bishop of Calcutta.
 
 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWTi:LL. 199 
 
 particulars may be acceptable. Charles Erskine, of Alva, 
 son of the Hon. Charles Erskine, fifth son of John, seventh 
 Earl of Mar, was created a baronet of Nova Scotia on the 
 30th April, 1666. Charles, his third son, was a lord of 
 session, with the judicial designation of Lord Tinwald, and 
 was father of James Erskine, a lord of session, by the title 
 of Lord Alva. Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Erskine, Bart., 
 grandson of the first baronet, was many years M.P. for the 
 Anstruther burghs ; he composed the popular song, " The 
 Garb of Old Gaul," He died in 1765, and was succeeded in 
 the baronetcy by James, his eldest son, who assumed the 
 surname of St. Clair, and on the death of his uncle, Alexander 
 Wedderburn, first Earl of EossIjti in 1805, became the second 
 Earl. 
 
 Colonel John Erskine, a younger son of the Hon. Sir 
 Charles Erskine, first baronet of Alva, and brother of Lord 
 Tinwald, married Euphemia, daughter of William Cochrane, of 
 Ochiltree, of the noble house of Dundonald, and his wife Lady 
 Mary Bruce, eldest daughter of the second Earl of Kincardine. 
 Two daughters of this marriage became memorable. Euphemia, 
 the younger, was the first wife of Lord Auchinleck, and mother 
 of James Boswell, who by maternal descent was great-great- 
 grandson of John, seventh Earl of Mar. 
 
 Mary, eldest daughter of Colonel John Erskine, married in 
 1739 the Eev. Alexander Webster, D.D., minister of the Tol- 
 booth Church, Edinburgh. Connected with this marriage is a 
 romantic incident. Prior to his settlement at Edinburgh Dr. 
 Webster was minister of Culross, Perthshire. Mary Erskine 
 resided in that parish witli her aunt Le^dy Preston, wife of 
 Sir George Preston, Bart., of Valleyfield. A young gentleman 
 of the neighbourhood was attracted by her charms, but being 
 unsuccessful in his addresses, begged Dr. Webster to intercede
 
 200 MEMOIR OF JAMES BOSWELL. 
 
 on liis behalf. The Doctor consented, and waiting on Miss 
 Erskine, pled his friend's cause with energy. The lady listened 
 patiently but expressed a decided negative. " Had you spoken 
 as well for yourself," she added, "I might have answered 
 differently." To his friend Dr. Webster reported the parti- 
 culars of the interview, and soon afterwards presented him- 
 seK at Valleyfield to plead his own suit. The lady complied, 
 but her relations consented with reluctance. The marriage took 
 place on the 13th June, 1737 ; Miss Erskine possessing a dowry 
 of £4,000. Elated by his good fortune Dr. Webster celebrated 
 his helpmate in a song, which, published in the Scots Magazine 
 for November, 1747, became popular. It commenced thus, — 
 
 " how could I venture to love one Uke thee, 
 And you not despise a poor conquest like me % 
 On lords, thy admirers, could look wi' disdain. 
 And knew I was naething, yet pitied my pain 1 
 You said while they teased you with nonsense and dress, 
 ' When real the passion, the vanity's less , ' 
 You saw through that silence which others despise, 
 And while beaux we're a-talking read love m my eyes." 
 
 Through his successful wooing Dr. Webster w^as led to 
 devise the Ministers' Widows Fund, so as to raise the social 
 status of his clerical brethren. In 1755 the first enume- 
 ration of the people of Scotland was conducted under his 
 superintendence. He proposed the enlargement of the city of 
 Edinburgh by the erection of the new town. In the High- 
 lands and islands he promoted agricultural improvement. By 
 his wife he was energetically aided in works of active benevo- 
 lence. He died in 1784, having survived his helpmate eighteen 
 years.
 
 BOSWELLIANA.
 
 203 
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " My father had all along so firm, so dry a mind, that religious 
 principles, however carefully inculcated by his father and mother, 
 and however constantly they remained on the surface, never 
 incorporated with his thoughts, never penetrated into the seat 
 of his affections. They were a dead range, not a quickset 
 hedge. The fence had a good appearance enough, and was 
 sufficiently strong ; but it never flourished in green luxuriance, 
 never blossomed, never bore fruit. The ground within, however, 
 produced plentiful crops of useful exertions as a judge, and im- 
 
 laird 
 
 provements as a landed gentleman. And let it be considered that 
 there may be a fine fence round barren, unprofitable land." 
 
 24th Sept., 1780. 
 
 " Maclaurin * maintained that bashfulness was the compound 
 effect of vanity and sensibility.f Nichols contended that it was 
 
 * John Maclaurin, eldest son of Colin Maclaurin, Professor of 
 IMathematics in the University of Edinburgh, was admitted advocate 
 in August, 1756. After a period of successful practice at the bar, he 
 was raised to the bench by the title of Lord Dreghorn in January, 
 1789. He died at Edinburgh 24th December, 1796. Maclaurin was one 
 of Boswell's early associates ; he contributed several poems to the first 
 volume of Donaldson's "Collection,'' Eihnburgh, 1760. Three 
 dramas from his pen, entitled, " Hampden," " The Public," and " The 
 Philosopher's Opera," are of very ordinary merit. His collected works 
 were pubbshed in 1798 in two octavo volumes. 
 
 t John I^ichols, printer, the celebrated author of the " Literary 
 Anecdotes," was born in 1744 and died in 1826. A person of ripe 
 and varied scholarship, he enjoyed the esteem of Dr. Johnson.
 
 204 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 quite corporeal, for the same man will be at one time bashful, 
 and at another time quite easy. ' That is,' said Maclaurin, ' he 
 has at one time a higher notion of himself than at another.' 
 ' No,' said Nichols, ' it is a trick which the nerves play to the 
 imagination." 23rd Sept., 1780. 
 
 "My friend Johnston * advised me to have our family crest, a 
 hawk, cut upon a pebble which I found on the channel of the 
 Lugar, which runs by Auchinleck. Said he, ' Let him perch on 
 his native stone.' " 22nd Sept., 1780. 
 
 " It is not unusual for men who have no real freindship (sic) nor 
 principle to have at the same time so sanguine an opinion of 
 their own abilities, that they imagine they can impose on others 
 as if they were children. They will do them an essential in- 
 jury, and at the same time try to persuade them that they have 
 done only what was fair and right. They are like determined 
 rogues, who first rob, and then blindfold you that you may not 
 pursue them." 24th Sept., 1780. 
 
 * John Johnston, of Grange, was one of Boswell's early and 
 more confidential associates. Professionally a writer to the signet, he 
 owned the small estate of Grange, Dumfriesshire, which brought him 
 a rental of about £100 per annum. In a letter to the Hon. Andrew 
 Erskine, dated 8tli May, 1762, Boswell alludes to Johnston in these 
 terms: — " I shall be at Dumfries soon, when I hope to see my friend 
 Johnston. We will talk much of old Scotch history, and the memory 
 of former years will warm our hearts. Johnston is a very Avorthy 
 fellow. I may safely say so, for I have lived in intimacy with him 
 more years than the Egyptian famine lasted." In his rej)ly Erskine 
 desires to be kindly remembered to " honest Johnston." He inquires 
 whether " his trees are growing well at his paternal estate of Grange ; 
 if he is as fond of Melvil's Memoirs [" Memoirs of Sir James Melvil, 
 of Halhill," London, 1752, 8vo.] as he used to be ; and if he continues 
 to stretch himself in the sun upon the mountains near Edinburgh." 
 Johnston fell into bad health. He predeceased Boswell, who became 
 a creditor on his estate. At Boswell's death the trustees on Johnston's 
 estate were indebted to his representatives in the sum of £195, (See 
 supra I p. 188.)
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 205 
 
 "Nichols said one should never dispute with a woman, 
 for she has not understanding enough to be convinced ; at least, 
 never will own herself in the wrong, and always will be angry 
 with you." 22nd Sept., 1780. 
 
 " Nichols said he liked better to converse with women than 
 with men of the greatest sense and knowledge. He owned he 
 could gain no acquisition to his intellectual stock from them, 
 but they diverted and cheered him. I said he had them like 
 housemaids to sweep the cobwebs from his mind and give it a 
 polish." 22nd Sept., 1780. 
 
 " A man who wishes just to be easy will always avoid those 
 subjects which he has discovered are hard and puzzling. Nay, 
 he will not even take the trouble to make the selection, but like 
 a luxurious indolent eater, wherever he finds any piece in the 
 least degree tough he will let it alone." 23rd Sept., 1780. 
 
 " Nichols said that a man of the ton, as the pln-ase is, — of 
 high breeding, and fashionable air, has at first an irresistible 
 superiority over plain men, others who have not such superficial 
 advantages. He has a shake of the head which frightens you, 
 but when you are once used to liim you laugh at the shake." 
 
 23rd Sept., 1780, 
 
 " In winter 1779, after Scotland had been exhausted by raising 
 new levies, Sir William Augustus Cunningham * boasted in 
 the House of Commons that 20,000 men might yet be raised in 
 that country and never be missed, either from manufactures or 
 agriculture. The Hon. Henry Ershire f said he believed it was 
 true. But they must be raised from the churchyards." 
 
 From himself. 
 
 * Sir William Augustus Cunynghame, fourth baronet of ]\Iilncraig, 
 AjTshire, was eldest son of Lieutenant-General Sir David Cun>Tig- 
 hame and his wife, Lady Mary Montgomery, only daughter of 
 Alexander, ninth Earl of Eglinton. For many years he represented 
 the county of Linlithgow in the House of Commons ; he also held 
 several important offices in the public service. He died 17th 
 January, 1828. 
 
 I The Hon. Henry Erskme, a celebrated humorist, was second son
 
 206 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 "A ludicrous recruiting advertisement was given about in 
 Edinburgh in 1778, inviting, amongst many other denominations, 
 all man mid wives to join the King's standard (repair to the drum- 
 head and acquire glory). Mrs. Dundas, of Melville,* pleasantly 
 asked if Dr. Young, the most eminent practitioner in midwifery, 
 would enlist. ' No, madam,' said the Hon. Henry Erskine, ' he 
 has already right to as great a title as he could acquire in the 
 army,' ' Ay,' said she, ' what is th at ? ' ' Madam,' said he, 
 ' the deliverer of his country.' " Erom himself. 
 
 " In 1780 there was published at Edinburgh an account of 
 Lord George Gordon, f with his head. He was then in the 
 
 of Henry David, tenth Earl of Buchan, and brother of Lord Cliau- 
 cellor Erskine : he was born at Edinburgh, in November, 17-16. He 
 passed advocate in 17G8, and soon attained professional eminence. 
 He was appointed Lord Advocate on the accession of the Coalition 
 Ministry in 1783, and three years afterwards was chosen Dean of 
 Faculty. On the return of the liberal party to power he was re- 
 appointed Lord Advocate, and was at the same time elected M.P. 
 for the Dumfries burghs. After a period of broken health, he died 
 on the 8th October, 1817. Many of his sparkling witticisms and 
 humorous sallies are included in popular collections of honmots. 
 
 * Mrs. Dundas, of MelviUo^ was daughter of David Eennie, Esq., 
 of Melville Castle, and first wife of Henry Dundas, subsequently 
 Viscount Melville. She died about 1790. 
 
 f On the 2nd June, 1790, Lord George Gordon, M.P., a younger 
 son of Cosmo George, third Duke of Gordon, led 100,000 persons in 
 procession to the House of Commons, to present a petition against a 
 measure for relieving Roman CathoHcs from certain disabiUties and 
 penalties. The procession was followed by a riot, which continued 
 several days, and was attended with the destruction of Catholic 
 chapels and private dwellings. The prisons of London, too, were 
 thrown open by the rabble, and the mansion of the chief justice 
 thrown down. Lord George Gordon was tried for high treason, but 
 acquitted. Afterwards convicted of libelling Queen ]\Iarie Antoi- 
 nette of France, and presenting a petition rellecting on the laws and 
 administration of criminal justice, he was committed to Newgate,
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 20? 
 
 Tower for high treason. Harry Erskine said, ' The next thing we 
 shall have will be an account of Lord George Gordon without 
 his head. ' I -vyr^s present. 
 
 " When Boswell was introduced to Mr. Samuel Johnson, wlio 
 had a very great antipathy at the Scotch, ' Mr. Johnson,' said he, 
 ' I come from Scotland, but I can't help it.' ' Sir,' said Johnson, 
 ' that I find is what a very great many of your countrymen 
 cannot help.' " * 
 
 " Lord Eglintoune f said that the hearts of the ladies were 
 like a looking-glass, which will reflect an image of the object 
 that is present, but retains no trace of what is absent." 
 
 I was present. 
 
 " Doctor Blair J asked Macpherson§ why he lived in England, 
 
 where he died on the 1st I^ovember, 1793. Lord George Gordon 
 evidently laboured under mental aberration, and ought to have been 
 placed in a lunatic asylum. 
 
 * This anecdote is included by Boswell in his " Life of Johnson," 
 
 f Alexander, tenth Earl of Eglinton, was a friend of the Auch- 
 inleck family, and one of Boswell's early patrons. Born in .1726, he 
 succeeded his father in bis third year. A zealous promoter of agri- 
 culture, he was much beloved by his tenantry and neighbours. He 
 was mortally wounded by a poacher, whom he sought forcibly to 
 deprive of his firelock :, he died on the 25th October, 1769. 
 
 I Dr. Hugh Blair, the celebrated preacher and rhetorician, was a 
 central figure in the Hterary society of Edinbm-gh. He was collegiato 
 minister of the High Church, and professor of rhetoric in the 
 University. The first volume of his " Sermons " was pubhshcd by 
 Strahan, on the recommendation of Dr. Jolmson. Dr. Blair was an 
 early patron of Burns, and to his encouragement and active assistants 
 Macpherson was much indebted in producing liis first specimens of 
 Ossianic poetry. Dr. Blair died at Edinburgh on the 27th December, 
 1800, aged eighty-two. 
 
 § James Macpherson, the editor of Ossian, established his residence 
 in London in 17G6, m his twenty-eighth year. Li 1780 he was elected 
 M.P. for Camelford. He died at Belleville, Inverness-shire, on the 1 7th 
 February, 1796, aged fifty-eight. Boswell's allusion to Jolin Bull is
 
 208 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 as he certainly could not be fond of John Bull. ' Sir/ said he, 
 ' I hate John Bull, but I love his daughters.' " 
 
 Doctor Blair. 
 
 " BosweU was walking with some ladies at Ranelagh, when a 
 large young woman passed by. ' That lady,' said Boswell, ' has 
 a great deal of beauty ; it cannot, indeed, well be exprest, but 
 it may be fdt! " 
 
 " Lady Fanny Montgomerie* met with a very handsome woman 
 in the highlands of Scotland, who had so much simplicity of 
 manner that she had never seen herself but in the water. Lady 
 Fanny showed her a little pocket mirror, which gave her a clear 
 view of her own face, and asked her if she ever had seen 
 anything so handsome. ' Madam,' said she, ' by your asking 
 that question I should i'magme that your ladyship had never 
 seen such a glass as this.' " Lord Eglintoune. 
 
 " Boswell was talking away one evening in St. James's Park 
 with much vanity. Said his friend Temple, ' We have heard 
 of many kinds of hobby-horses, but, Boswell, you ride upon 
 yourself.' " 
 
 " A stupid fellow was declaiming against that land of raillery 
 .called roasting, and was saying, I am sure I have a great deal of 
 good nature ; I never roast any. ' Why, sir,' said Boswell, 
 ' you are an exceedingly good-natured man, to be sure ; but I can 
 give you a better reason for your never roasting any. Sir, you 
 never roast any, because yoa have got no fire.' " 
 
 " A keen Scott {sic) [Dr. OgUvie] f was standing up for his 
 
 explained by the attacks made on Macpherson by Dr. Johnson and other 
 English writers, in reference to the authenticity of Ossian's poems. 
 
 * Lady Frances Montgomerie was daughter of Alexander, ninth Earl 
 of Eglinton, and sister of the tenth and eleventh earls. She died 
 unmarried. 
 
 f Dr. John Ogilvie, was minister of Midmar, Aberdeenshire. He 
 composed many volumes of poetry, and several of his lyrics have 
 obtained celebrity. He died in 1814, at an adv^anced age.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 209 
 
 country, and boasting that it liad a great many noble wild pro- 
 spects. ' Sir,' said :Mr. Samuel Johnson, ' I believe you have a 
 great many noble wild prospects. Norway, too, has got some 
 prospects ; and Lapland is remarkable for prodigious noble wild 
 prospects. But, sir, I believe the noblest prospect that a Scotch- 
 man ever sees is the road which leads him to England.'" 
 
 I was present. 
 
 "When the Duke de Nivernais was sent ambassador from 
 France to England, at the first inn in Britain he was charged 
 a most extravagant bill. The people of the house being asked 
 how they could use him so ill when he was a stranger, they 
 replied that was the very reason ; for as they chose to observe 
 Scripture rules, ' He was a stranger,' said they, ' and we took 
 him in.' " Captain Temple. * 
 
 " Boswell asked ]VIr. Samuel Johnson what was best to teach a 
 gentleman's children first. 'Why, sir,' said he, 'there is no 
 matter wdiat you teach them first. It matters no more than 
 which leg you put first into your bretches (sic). Sn, you may 
 stand disputing which you shall put in first, but in the meantime 
 your legs are bare. No matter which you put in first so that 
 you put 'em both in, and then you have your bretches on. Sir, 
 while you think which of two things to teach a child first, 
 another boy, in the common course, has learnt both.' " 
 
 I was present. 
 
 " Mr. Samuel Johnson doubted much of the autlienticity of 
 the poems of Ossian. Doctor Blair asked him if he thought 
 any man could describe these barbarous manners so well if he 
 had not lived at the time and seen them. 'Any man, sir,' 
 replied Mr. Johnson, — ' any man, woman, or cliild might have 
 done it.' " Doctor Blair. 
 
 * Captain Eobert Temple was younger brother of Roswell's 
 intimate friend, the Rev. William Johnson Tfuiplc, rcctur of 
 Mamhead. (See supra, pp. 3G, 47.) 
 
 P
 
 210 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " Boswell was praising the English highly, and saying they 
 
 were a fine open people. ' Oh," ,' said Macpherson, ' an 
 
 open people ! their mouths, indeed, are open to gluttony to fill 
 their belly, but I know of no other openness they have.' " 
 
 I was present. 
 
 " Boswell was telling Mr. Samuel Johnson how Macpherson 
 railed at all established systems. ' So would he tumble in a 
 hog-stye,' said Mr. Johnson, ' as long as you look at him and 
 cry to him to come out ; but let him alone, never mind him, 
 and he'll soon give it over.' " 
 
 " Hall,* the author of ' Crazy Tales,' said he could not bear 
 David Hume for being such a monarchical dog. * Is it not 
 
 fear 
 
 shocking,' said he, ' that a fellow who does not believe in God, 
 
 fear 
 
 should believe in a king ? ' " Mr. DEMPSTER.f 
 
 " Mr. Samuel Johnson, after being acquainted with Lord 
 Chesterfield, said, ' I see now what this man is. I thought he 
 had been a lord among wits, but 1 find he is only a wit 
 among lords.'" Doctor EoBEKXsoN.t 
 
 * John Hall-Stevenson was a relative of Laurence Sterne, and the 
 "Eugenius" of his "Tristram Shandy." His " Crazy Tales," which 
 appeared anonymously in 17G2, are described by Sir Walter Scott as 
 " witty and indecent." Bishop Warburton describes Hall-Stevenson 
 as "a monster of impiety and lewdness." He died in 1785. He 
 is noticed in Dr. Alexander Carlyle's Autobiography. 
 t George Dempster, M.P. (See supra, pp. 32 — 34.) 
 X Dr. William Eobertson, the historian, was son of a Scottish 
 clergyman, and claimed descent from the Eobertsons of Struan, an 
 important family in the Highlands. Born in 1721, he was appointed 
 minister of Gladsmuir in 1743 ; he was translated to one of the city 
 churches of Edinburgh in 1758, and three years afterwards was 
 appointed Principal of the University. He became historiographer 
 royal for Scotland, and received other ofiiccs attended with honours 
 and emoluments. His "History of Scotland during the Reigns of Mary
 
 ROSWKLLIANA. 211 
 
 " Mr. Samuel Jolinson was once at Windsor, and dined with 
 the mayor. But the fellow (said he) not content with feedin;^r 
 my body, thouglit he must feed ray mind too, and so he told me 
 a long story how he had sent three criminals to the plantations. 
 Tired to death with his nonsense, ' I wish (to God),' said Jolinson, 
 ' that I was the fourth.' " Mr. Sheridan.* 
 
 "A bishop was flattering Sir Robert Walpolet egregiously. A 
 gentleman asked him how he could bear such fulsome stuff. 
 ' Sir,' said he, 'if you were as severely scourged in the House of 
 Commons as I am, you w^ould be glad of any dog to lick your 
 sores.' " :Mr. Dempster. 
 
 " An officer on the recruiting service made his regular returns 
 to the regiment, in which he said that he had as yet got none, 
 but that he had a man of six foot two in liis eye. ' All 
 nonsense ! ' said the colonel ; ' recall him immediately. He 
 has had that fellow in his eye these six years.' " 
 
 Captain WEBSXEii.if 
 
 " Lord Chesterfield told a half-pay lieutenant that he would 
 bring him back to full pay in the same rank. 'My lord,' said he, 
 ' I detest the name of lieutenant so mucli that I would not be 
 made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.' " A Stranger. 
 
 and James VI." appeared in 1759, and at once attracted attention. 
 His other historical works sustained his reputation. He died on tlie 
 llth June, 1793, aged seventy-one. His sister, ^Irs. Syrae, was 
 grandmother of Henry, Lord Brougham. 
 
 * Thomas Sheridan, father of Eichard Brinsk^y Sheridan, whose 
 acquaintance Boswell formed at Edinburgh early in hfe. !Mr. 8lieridan 
 was a lecturer on elocution, and author of a pronouncing dictionary. 
 He was latterly at variance with Dr. Johnson. He died in 1788. 
 
 f Sir Eobert Walpole, latterly Earl of Orford. This eminent 
 statesman was born in 1676, and died IStli March, 1745. 
 
 l Captain Webster, only son of the Kev. L)r. Alexander Webster, 
 minister of the Tolbooth church, Edinburgh, was Boswelfs maternul 
 cousin. Captain Webster attained the rank of colonel ; he fill in 
 the American war.
 
 212 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " Boswell said that a man is reckoned a wise man rather for 
 ■what he does not say than for what he says. Perhaps upon 
 the whole Limbcrtongnc speaks a greater quantity of good 
 sense than Manly does. But Limbcrtongue gives you such 
 floods of frivolous nonsense that his sense is quite drowned. 
 Manly gives you unmixed good sense only. Manly will always 
 be thought the wisest man of the two." 
 
 " Dempster, who was a great republican, was presenting an 
 address one day at court. He was hurt to see subordination 
 prevail so much, and was shocked to see the keen and able 
 Lord Marchmont * bowing just like the rest. He said he looked 
 like a chained eagle at a gentleman's 'gate." From himself. 
 
 " Mr. Samuel Johnson said that all sceptical innovators were 
 vain men ; and finding mankind allready (sic) in possession of 
 Truth, they found they could not gratify their vanity in support- 
 ing her, and so they have taken to error. Truth (said he) is a cow 
 which will yield such people no more milk, and so they are 
 gone to milk the bull." I was present. 
 
 " Captain Erskine •)* complained that Eoswell's hand was so 
 large, that his letters contained very little. ]\Iy lines (said 
 
 * Hugh Home, third Earl of Marchmont, was celebrated for his 
 elegant learning and remarkable powers of debate. He enjoyed the 
 esteem of Chatham and Walpole. Lord Cobham placed his bust in 
 the temple of worthies at Stowe ; and Pope, who enjoyed his intimacy, 
 has thus celebrated him in the grotto at Twickenham, — 
 
 " There the bright flame was shot through Marchmont' s soul." 
 
 Dr. Johnson entertained a prejudice against him, but was induced 
 by Boswell to wait on him for his recollections of Pope. Johnson 
 was received by the earl with much cordiality, and at the close of a 
 long interview he remarked to Boswell that he " Avould rather have 
 given twenty pounds than not have come." Lord Marchmont died 
 on the 10th January, 1794, aged eighty-six. 
 
 t Captain Andrew Erskine (see supra, pp. 19 — 24).
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 213 
 
 Boswell) are, like my ideas, very irregular, and at a great distance 
 from each other." 
 
 " Sir W. Maxwell * said he was allways affraid (sic) of a clever 
 man till he knew if he had good nature. ' Yes,' said Boswell ; 
 ' when you see a clever man you see a man brandisliing a drawn 
 sword, and you are uneasy till you know if he intends only to 
 make it glitter in the sun, or to run you through the body 
 with it.' " 
 
 " A robust Caledonian was telling (in the Scots pronuncia- 
 tion) that he was born in Emhro. ' Indeed ! ' said an English 
 physician : ' upon my word, the prettiest abortion I ever saw.' " 
 
 . Mk. CRAWFURD, f EOTTERDAM. 
 
 " Boswell said that men of lively fancies seldom tell a story so 
 distinctly as those of slower capacity, as they confound the 
 intellect with an excess of brilliancy. It is a common expres- 
 sion, I cannot see for the light. It may also be said, I cannot 
 understand you ; you shine so much." 
 
 " Boswell told Mr. Samuel Johnson that a gentleman of their 
 acquaintance maintained in public company that he could see 
 no distinction between virtue and vice. ' Sh',' said ]\Ir. Johnson, 
 ' does he intend that we should believe that he is lying, or tliat 
 he is in earnest ? If we think him a lyar, that is not honouring 
 him very much. But if we think him in earnest, when he 
 leaves our houses let us count our spoons.' " 
 
 " Mr. Sheridan, though a man of knowledge and parts, was a 
 little fancifull {sic) in his projects for establishing oratory and 
 altering the mode of British education. ' Mr. Samuel Johnson,' 
 said Sherry, ' cannot abide me, for I allways ask him, Pray sir, 
 what do you propose to do ? ' " From Mr. Johnson. 
 
 * Sir William Maxwell, fourth Baronet of Mom-eith, Wigtonshire. 
 He died 22nd August, 1771. 
 
 I Mr. Crawfurd succeeded the Eev. Jolin Home in 1770, a^ Con- 
 servator of Scots Privileges at Campvere.
 
 214 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " Boswell was talking to Mr. Samuel Johnson of j\Ir. Sheri- 
 dan's enthusiasm for the advancement of eloquence. ' Sir,' said 
 Mr. Johnson, ' it won't do. He cannot carry through his 
 scheme. He is like a man attempting to stride the English 
 Channel. Sir, the cause bears no proportion to the effect. It 
 is setting up a candle at Whitechapel to give light at West- 
 minster.' " 
 
 " When Mr. Trotz,* Professor of Civil Law at Utrecht, was at 
 Copenhagen, he had a mind to hear the Danish pulpit oratory, 
 and went into one of their churches. At that time the barbarous 
 custom of making spoil of shipwrecked goods still prevailed in 
 Denmark. The minister prayed with great fervency : ' Lord, 
 if it please Thee to chastise the wicked for their sins, and to 
 send forth Thy stormy winds to destroy their ships, we beg that 
 Thou mayest throw them upon our coasts rather upon any other, 
 that Thy chosen people may receive benefit therefrom, and with 
 thankful hearts may glorify Thy holy name.' " Mr. Teotz. 
 
 " ' Tres faciunt collegium' is the common adage. A professor 
 of law at Utrecht came to his college one day, and found but 
 one student. He would not have it said that he was obliged 
 to dismiss for want of auditors. So he gravely pronounced, 
 ' Deus unus, ergo duo in tres. Tres faciunt collegium. Incipe- 
 mus.'" An Utrecht Student. 
 
 " An English gentleman who was studying at Geneva was 
 introduced to Mr. Voltaire, and at one of the comedies which 
 were given at the Delice he had the part of a stupid absurd 
 Englishman assigned to him. The gentleman was modest and 
 anxious, and was saying he did not know well how to do. 
 Mr. Voltaire encouraged him : ' Sir,' said he, ' don't be affraid. 
 Just act in your own natural way, and you'll do very well.'" 
 
 Mr. Temple. 
 
 * C. H. Trotz, the great German jurisconsult, whose lectures on 
 civil law UoswcU attended at Utrecht in 17G3. Professor Trotz 
 was hum in 1701, and died in 1773.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 215 
 
 " The King of Prussia asked an English gentleman why the 
 civil law did not universally prevail in Great Britain. The 
 gentleman replied, Because we are not Eomans. 'That is true,' 
 said the King, ' but your nation has produced many Eomans.' " 
 
 M, GiFFARDIER. 
 
 " When Lord Hope * was presented to the King of Prussia, he 
 told him that he made in one summer the tour of Denmark, 
 Sweden, and Norway. ' Ay,' said the king, ' and pray, my lord, 
 why have you not been in Siberia ? ' " M, Giffardier. 
 
 " Mr. Samuel Johnson said of Sheridan, ' Sherry is dull, natu- 
 raUy dull, but it must have cost him a great deal of pains to 
 become so exceedingly stupid; such an excess of stupidity is not 
 in nature. ' " Mr. Dempster, from Foote. f 
 
 "The Earl of Marchmont and Lord Littleton :}: differed warmly 
 
 * James, Lord Hope, subsequently third Earl of Hopetoim, was 
 ■born in 1741 ; he entered the army in 1758, and was present at the 
 battle of Minden the following year; he left the army in 1764 to 
 accompany his elder brother on a Continental tour ; he succeeded to the 
 earldom in 1781, and was afterwards elected a representative peer. He 
 died on the 29th May, 1816, aged seventy-five. 
 
 t Samuel Foote, the celebrated comedian, was born in 1720, at 
 Truro, in Cornwall ; he belonged to a respectable family, but he soon 
 wasted his inheritance and his wife's fortune by a course of dissipation. 
 Compelled by necessity, he became a play er, making his dehvt in the 
 Haymarket Theatre in 1747. From a grotesque imitation of leading 
 persons he attained popularity, accompanied with a rancorous feehng on 
 the part of those whom he subjected to ridicule. He was an ciiter- 
 taining companion, but possessed few amiable qualities. He died in 
 October, 1777, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 \ George Lyttleton was born in 1709. As a commoner he entered 
 Parliament in his twenty-first year. He opposed Walpole, and in 1 732 
 was appointed secretary to Frederick, Prince of Wales. On Walpole's 
 retirement he obtained a succession of offices, culminatmg in the 
 ChanceUorship of the Exchequer ; in 1759 he was raised to the peer- 
 age. Henceforth he cultivated letteis, producing vai-ious works in
 
 216 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 about the authenticity of Fingal. Macpherson said he shouhl 
 like to see them figliting a duel in Hyde Park. ' See them ! ' said 
 Dempster : ' no one man could possibly see them, they would 
 stand at such a distance from one another.' " I was present. 
 
 " When Derrick was made King of Bath, Mr. Samuel John- 
 son said, 'Derry may do very well while he can outrun his 
 character, but the moment that his character gets up with him 
 he is gone.'" I was present. 
 
 " When Dempster was at Brussels, a young gentleman of 
 Scotland was very bad. Dempster said that the surgeons poured 
 mercury into him as if he had been the tube of a weather-glass." 
 
 " Boswell told Mr. Samuel Johnson that Sir James Macdon- 
 ald * said he had never seen him, but he had a great respect 
 for him, though at the same time a great terror. ' Were he to 
 see me,' said Mr. Johnson, ' it would probably lessen both.' " 
 
 " Mr. Samuel Johnson told Boswell that Dr. Goldsmith when 
 abroad used to dispute in the universities, and so get prize 
 money, which carried him on in his travels. ' Well,' said Boswell, 
 ' that was indeed disputing his passage through Europe.' " 
 
 " Boswell was saying that Derrick was a miserable writer. 
 True,' said Mr. Samuel Johnson,! 'but it is to his being a 
 
 prose and Averse. He was inclined to indolence, but was much 
 esteemed for his high principle and moral worth. He died 22nd 
 August, 1773. 
 
 * Boswell has inserted this anecdote in his Life of Dr. Johnson. Sir 
 James Macdonald, Bart., the " Scottish Marcellus," was eiglith baronet 
 of Sleat, and male representative of the Lords of the Isles. Born 
 in 1741, lie early distinguished himself at Eton by the variety of 
 his accomplishments, and high hopes were entertained of his career. 
 He was unhappily seized with a complication of disorders, of which 
 he died on the 2Gth July, 1766, at the age of twentj^-five. 
 
 t This anecdote is included by Boswell in his " Life of Johnson."
 
 liOSWlXIlANA. 217 
 
 writer that lie owes anything he has. Sir, had not Derrick been 
 a writer, he would have been sweeping the crosses in the streets, 
 and asking halfpence from everybody that passed/ " 
 
 " A good-natured, stupid man, at Bath, wanted to appear a 
 man of some consequence by talking often with Mr. (^lin,* 
 although he had nothing earthly to say more than ' Your servant, 
 Mr. Quin! I hope you are well.' Quin bore with him for 
 some time, but at last he lost patience, and one day when the 
 gentleman came up to him with a ' Mr. Quin, I hope you are 
 well ! ' Quin replied, ' Yes, sir, I am very well, and intend to be 
 so for six months to come ; so, sir, till that time I desire you 
 may not again ask me that question.' " 
 
 Mr. Eose, at Utrecht. 
 
 "Mr. Samuel Johnson and Boswell slept in one room at 
 Chichester. A moth flew round the candle for some time, and 
 burnt itself to death. ' That creature,' said Mr. Johnson, ' M-as 
 its own tormentor, and I believe its name was Boswell.' " f 
 
 " Mr. Fordyce + said that a man of public character who falls 
 into disgrace in England receives immediate punishment from 
 the mob ; and is a greater man than Orpheus, who only made 
 live animals follow him, whereas the rogue makes dead cats 
 come after him." I was present. 
 
 "Baldie Robertson, a Scotch advocate, asked Boswell to 
 
 * James Quin, the player, was extremely pugnacious ; lie fought 
 two duels, in one of which lie killed his antagonist. His latter years, 
 on his partial retirement from the stage, Avere spent at Bath. He died 
 on the 21st January, 1766, aged seventy-three. 
 
 f Boswell has published this anecdote in his " Life of Johnson." 
 t BosweU was on terms of friendship with the Rev. Dr. James 
 Fordyce, author of " Addresses to the Deity." He died at Bath on 
 the 1st October, 1796. His nephew, Dr. George Fordyce, an eminent 
 physician in the metropolis, became in 1774: a member of the Literary 
 Club. He published numerous professional works, and died 25111 
 May, 1802.
 
 218 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 accompany liim to cheapen a couple of rooms of Lucky Eannie's. 
 She told him, ' Sir, you shall just have them for a guinea a week, 
 you furnishing coal and candle.' Baldie, with much emotion, 
 cried out, ' But I tell you, woman, I have no coal and candle.' " 
 
 "Boswell said of Miss Stewart, of Blackball,* 'that more 
 brilliant beauties came armed with darts and attacked men as 
 foes, but Miss Stewart carried no weapons of destruction, and 
 treated with them as with allies.' " 
 
 " Lord Eglintoune said to Boswell, whose lively imagination 
 formed many schemes, but whose indolence hindered him from 
 executing them, ' Jamie, you have a light head, but a heavy 
 
 " Lord Eglintoune said to Boswell, who was maintaining that 
 by habit he would acquire the power of application to business, 
 ' Application must be an original vigour of mind. The arm of 
 any blacksmith may become so strong by habit that he may 
 gain his bread ; but if he has not natural strength he will never 
 make excellent w^ork.' " 
 
 " The Spaniards are a noble people ; at least, their gentlemen 
 have great souls. At a famous battle there was a brave Spanish 
 ofiicer who had been wounded in many actions, and had but one 
 eye left. A bullet came and struck it out as he was charging at 
 the head of his troops, and wounded him mortally. With calm 
 and solemn dignity he called to his men, * Bonas noctias, cavi- 
 lieros ' (' Good night, my fellow-soldiers ')." Mr. Eose. 
 
 " A German baron, newly arrived at Paris in a suit trimmed 
 with almaches — that is, small lace disposed so as to look like 
 horns — went to the theatre just in his travelling dress, and 
 getting behind the scenes showed himself upon the stage. The 
 Parterre began to make a noise like the firing of cannon. One 
 
 * Miss Margaret Stewart, eldest daughter of Sir Michael Stewart, 
 Bart., of ]'.lackhall, married in 1764 Sir William Maxwell, Bart., of 
 SpriDgkell. Slie had a younger sister, Eleanora, who died unmarried.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 219 
 
 of the players begged to know wliat was tlic matter, when a 
 gentleman replied, pointing to the baron, ' Animal, ne voys tu 
 pas que nous attaqons cette ouvrage a corne ? ' ' You fool, 
 don't you see that we are attacking that hornwork V " 
 
 M. GiFFAllDIER. 
 
 " Monsieur Chapelle satirized with much keenness the pefiis 
 maitres of his time. One of them who chanced to be in com- 
 pany with him exclaimed against these satires, and said he 
 wished he knew the author — he would beat him heartily. 
 He plagued the company with his threatenings, especially 
 Chapelle, whom he sat next to and shouldered. At last 
 Chapelle gave a spring, and turning up his back to him, cried, 
 ' Frap et va t'en ! ' ( ' Strike, and get thee gone ! ' ) " 
 
 M. GiFFAEDIEU. 
 
 " When M. Voltaire was in England he had a great desire to 
 see Dr. Clarke,* but the Doctor, who had heard his character, 
 would not be acquainted with him ; at last he fell in with a 
 friend of Dr. Clarke's, who asked him to be of a party where the 
 Doctor was. Voltaire went and seated himself next to the 
 Doctor, in full expectation of hearing him talk, but he remained 
 very silent. Voltaire, in order to force him to speak, threw out 
 all the wild profane rhodomontades that his imagination could 
 suggest against religion. At last Dr. Clarke turned about, and 
 looking him steadily in the face with the keen eagle eyes for 
 which he was remarkable, ' Sir,' said he, ' do you acknowledge 
 that two and two make four?' Voltaire was so confounded 
 by this that he said not another word." Mk. BitoWN.f 
 
 * Voltaire visited England in 1724, when Dr. Samuel Clarke was 
 in the zenith of his fame. His " Evidences of Natural and Eevealed 
 Keligion " appeared in 1705, and was followed by other theological 
 and philosophical works. Dr. Clarke was born at JS'orwich in 
 1675, and died in 1729. He displayed a playful humour among his 
 ordinary associates, but was grave and circumspect in the presence 
 of strangers, especially of forward or eccentric persons. 
 
 t With the Eev. William Drown, minister of the Scottish Cliurcli
 
 220 P.OSWELLIANA. 
 
 "A dull German baron had got amongst the English at 
 Geneva, and, being highly pleased with their spirit, wanted to 
 imitate them. One day an Englishman came in to the baron's 
 room, and found him jumping with all his might upon the 
 chairs and down again, so that he was all in a sweat. ' Mon 
 Dieu! Monsieur le baron,' dit-il, 'que faites-vous ? ' (' Good God! 
 baron,' said he, ' what are you about?') ' Monsieur,' replied the 
 baron, wiping down his temples with a handkerchief, ' j'apprens 
 d'etre vif ' ('I am learning to be lively' )." 
 
 Mademoiselle de Zoilen. 
 
 "Mr. Thomas Hunter,* minister at New Cumnock, was visiting 
 
 at Utrecht, Boswell became acquainted during his residence in that 
 city. Mr. Brown had a personal history, not uneventful. Son of 
 the Rev. Laurence Brown, minister of Lintrathen in Forfarshire, he 
 rescued when a theological student several officers captured by the 
 
 . rebels at the battle of Prestonpans. The rescue took place at 
 Glammis, the captors being followers of Lord Ogilvie, a zealous adher- 
 ent of the Prince. Soon afterwards Mr. Brown was ordained minister 
 of Cortachy, a parish inhabited by Lord Ogilvie's tenantry. Reports 
 to his disadvantage soon spread, and in 1748 he demitted his 
 charge on account of " the odium of the disaffected, the pre- 
 
 j udices of the people, and his life being attacked by a ruffian." 
 Through the influence of the Duke of Cumberland he was appointed 
 chaplain to a British regiment stationed in Flanders, and was subse- 
 quently admitted pastor of the Scottish church at Utrecht. In 1757 
 he received a commission from the Crown as Professor of Church 
 History at St. Andrews, but he did not obtain induction for several 
 years; his appointment, on account of the rumours at Cortachy, being 
 resisted both by the university and the presbytery. He was at 
 length admitted by decree of the General Assembly. His lectures 
 were composed in Latin, but his theological attainments were less con- 
 spicuous than his patriotism. He died on the 10th January, 1791, 
 aged seventy-two. His son was the celebrated William Laurence 
 Brown, Princii>al of Marischal College, Aberdeen. 
 
 * The Rev. Thomas Hunter, minister of I^ew Cumnock, Ayrshire 
 from 1706 to 1757, died in 17G0, in his hundredth year.— Dr. Scott's 
 
 '• FcLifi."
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 221 
 
 his parish on a very cold day. At a substantial farmer's they 
 set him down an excellent smoaking haggis. ' Come,' said lie, 
 ' here is the grace :— Lord, we thank Thee for this warm 
 Providence.'" Lokd Auciiinleck. 
 
 " When Mr. Sheridan lived at Windsor he used often to meet 
 a very awkward fellow who did not know liow to hold his arms. 
 Mr. Sheridan said the fellow always made him imagine that he 
 was carrying home a pair of arms that somebody had bespoke." 
 
 From himself 
 
 " When Mr. David Hume began first to be known in the 
 world as a philosopher, Mr. Thomas White, a decent rich 
 merchant of London, said to him, ' I am surprised, Mr. Hume, 
 that a man of your good sense should think of being a philoso- 
 pher. Why, I now took it into my head to be a philosopher for 
 some time, but tired of it most confoundedly, and very soon gave 
 it up.' ' Pray, sir,' said Mr. Hume, 'in what branch of philosophy 
 did you employ your researches ? What books did you 
 read?' 'Books?' said Mr. White; 'nay, sir, I read no books, 
 but I used to sit you whole forenoons a-yaMaiing and poking 
 the fire.'" Sir David Dalryjiple. * 
 
 "Pierot, the biting French satirist, had often ajiplied to be 
 admitted member of the Academic Eoyale, and still was rejected. 
 One day, after hearing their disquisitions, a freind {sic) asked him, 
 'N'ont-ils pas beaucoup d'esprit ?' 'Esprit?' replied Pierot, ' sans 
 doute ils ont beaucoup d'esprit. lis ont esprit commc quatre.' 
 The society is forty-eight in number." 
 
 " Mr. Tronchin, t physician at Geneva, an intimate friend of 
 
 * Sir David Dalrymple, Bart., a judge in the Court of Session by 
 the title of Lord Hailes, was one of Boswell's earliest patrons. Ad- 
 mitted advocate in 1748, he was raised to the bench in 17GG. Tie 
 employed a portion of his time in literary and historical researches. 
 He died on the 29th November, 1792, aged sixty -six (see 5?{pra p. 10). 
 
 f Theodore Tronchin belonged to an omiiiont Protestant family at
 
 222 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 Mr. Voltaire, told Mr. Brown, the English minister at Utrecht, 
 that one time when Voltaire was very bad, he was under the 
 greatest terror for death, and he used this strong expression to 
 Mr. Tronchin, — ' Sir, if I were put upon the rack at three 
 o'clock in the afternoon, and had both my legs and both my 
 arms broke, if I had my choice either to die immediately or 
 to live till seven at night, I would choose to live till seven.' 
 A fortnight after, when he was quite recovered, he was talking 
 against religion with as much wildness and extravagance as 
 ever, and seemed highly delighted with shaking the faith of 
 all the company. Mr. Tronchin, who was present, got up with 
 indignation, went round to Voltaire, and catching him by the 
 breast, said, ' You pitiful wretch ! are you, for a little gratifica- 
 tion of vanity, endeavouring to destroy the only pillars which 
 can support mankind at that awful hour which made you so 
 lately tremble like a coward ? ' In contradiction to this story^ 
 see in my Journal the account which Troncliin gave me of 
 Voltaire." * Mk. Bkown. 
 
 "During a hot action between the French and the allied 
 armies, in which the former were defeated, a French grenadier 
 was taken prisoner by an officer of the Iniskilling [Enniskillin] 
 dragoons. He immediately demanded of the prisoner, ' Where is 
 ]Marshal Broglio ? ' The brave grenadier replied, with the high 
 spirit of a French soldier, ' II est partout.' He is everywhere." 
 
 M. GiFFARDiER, from the Officer. 
 
 " As a strong picture of the difference between French and Ger- 
 man manners, the following story will serve : An English officer 
 in Germany during the war kept a girl. She had a great deal 
 
 Geneva. On the mother's side he was related to Lord Bolingbroke. 
 Born on the 14th May, 1709, he studied medicine, and settled at 
 Amsterdam in 1736. He attained eminence in his profession, chiefly 
 as a promoter of inoculation. In 1757 he published " De Colica 
 Pictorum." He died 30th November, 1781. 
 
 * Boswell's Journal was probably destroyed l)y liis family. (Soe 
 supra, p. ISf).)
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 223 
 
 of spirit, and for a frolic she would pay a visit to the enemy's 
 outpost. She first came to a French centinel, who seeing a 
 pretty — nay, elegant lady coming towards him, immediately 
 grounded his arm§, pulled off his hat, and with all tlie politeness 
 in the world saluted her with * Ah, madame, je suis charme,' &c. 
 She put out her hand", which he kissed with great gallantry. 
 She then went to a German centinel in the French service. 
 When he observed her approaching, he looked stern and shoved 
 her back with his hand ; and when she atteihpted still to 
 advance, he held out his fusil. She ran briskly off, crying, 
 ' You brute, we have taken Cassel ! ' " 
 
 "After a defeat of the French in Germany by the Prussians, 
 a French soldier got his back against a tree, and was defending 
 himself against four or five Prussians. The King of Prussia 
 came up himself, and called out to the soldier, ' INIon ami, croyez- 
 vous que vous etes invincible ? ' He replied, ' Qui, sire, si j'etois 
 commande par vous.' " Mr. Giffaedier. 
 
 " After another defeat of the French by the Prussians, a 
 French soldier said to his companion while they were running 
 off, ' Vraiment cet Roi de Prusse est un brave homme. Je crois 
 qu'il a servi en France.' " Me. Giffaedier. 
 
 " After the defeat of the French at Ptosbach, there happened a 
 ludicrous enough incident. A little French officer was taken 
 prisoner by a tall, fierce, black hussar. After making him 
 deliver up his sword, his watch, and his money, the hussar made 
 him get up behind him and hold fast, and away he galloped ; and 
 all the time, with the greatest saiui froid, he was eating apples 
 out of his pocket, and now and then, with a humph, threw one 
 over his shoulder to the officer, who, for fear of his displeasure, 
 eat them every one most faithfully." 
 
 Mr. Giffaedier, from the officer himself. 
 
 "When Boswell was a young, giddy, froliosmue dog in Lcndnn,
 
 224 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 a parcel of sarcastical Scots, dining at Almack's * were enlarging 
 much on his imprudence. ' I do not know,' said Dempster, 
 ' how Boswell may do in this world, but I am sure he would do 
 very well in a better.' " From Miss DEiirsTER.-f- 
 
 " Boswell complained that he had too good a memory in 
 trifles, which prevented his remembering things of consequence- 
 * My head,' said he, ' is like a tavern, in which a club of low 
 punch-drinkers have taken up the room that might have been 
 filled with lords who drink Burgundy, but it is not in the land- 
 lord's power to dispossess them.' " 
 
 "A gentleman was complaining that upon a long voyage 
 their provisions were very bad, and, in particular, that their 
 beef turned quite green. ' Very right, sir,' said Caleb White- 
 foord,:j: ' you know all flesh is grass, and therefore ought to be 
 green.' " I was present. 
 
 " Boswell says that a man who sets out on the journey of 
 life with opinions that he has never examined is like a man 
 who goes a-fowling with a gun that has never been proved." 
 
 * Almack's Hotel was thus originated : A sister of Dr. Cullen, the 
 celebrated physician, was waiting-maid to the Duchess of Hamilton. 
 She married the duke's valet, Avhose name was ]\Iacall. They were 
 both favourites of the duke and duchess, who resolved to establish 
 them comfortably. As they inclined to open an hotel in London, 
 the duke secured eligible premises. Macall was deemed a name 
 unsuited for a London landlord, and on the duke's suggestion it was 
 changed to Almack. 
 
 f Helen Dempster, only sister of George Dempster, M.P., married 
 General Burring^ton. On the death of her brother without issue, in 
 1818, she succeeded to the family estate of Dunnichen. 
 
 I An amiable man, but crushing satirist, Caleb AVhitefoord was 
 bom at Edinburgh in 1734. He was intended for the Scottish 
 Church, but preferring the concerns of busi ness, settled in London 
 as a wine merchant. Ht3 contributed satirical poems, in prose and 
 verse, to the Public Advertiser, directing his slirtfts chiefly against
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 225 
 
 " Boswell, who had a good deal of whim, used not only to 
 form wild projects in his imagination, but would sometimes 
 reduce them to practice. In his calm hours he said with great 
 good humour, ' There have been many people who built castles 
 in the air, but I believe I am the first that ever attempted to 
 live in them.' 
 
 " A gentleman said of a clumsy wench that she was as hot 
 as fire. ' Yes,' said Boswell, ' but in a very different way. The 
 fire feels nothing, but communicates the heat to other bodies ; 
 but this wench leaves all cold around her while she herself is 
 burning.' " 
 
 " A young lady was wishing much to be her own mistress. 
 ' You are mine, miss,' said her lover, ' and that is much better.' " 
 
 " Mademoiselle de Zuyl told Boswell one day, ' Monsieur, 
 cette apres-midi j'ai voulee convaincre ma chere mere de quelque 
 chose, niais elle ne vouloit pas m'entendre, et pour m'echaper 
 elle a courue de chambre en chambre. J'ai la suivi pourtant et 
 j'ai raisonnee.' ' Eh bien, Mademoiselle,' replied Boswell, ' c'etoit 
 un raisonnement suivi.' " 
 
 " A gentleman told Boswell that one of his studious freinds 
 used to have a bottle of wine set upon his desk in the evening, 
 and that generally he caught himself at the end of it. ' Ay,' 
 said Boswell, ' I suppose, sir, he took care not to catch himself 
 before he got to the end of it.' " 
 
 " A forward fellow asked Boswell one day the character of a 
 
 Wilkes. He attracted the notice of Government, and on his recom- 
 mendation Dr. Johnson was requested to prepare his pamphlet in 
 defence of the recent negotiations respecting the Falkland Islands. 
 He was secretary of the commissioners appointed to meet at Paris in 
 1782, to treat of a general peace with America on the separation of 
 the colonies from the mother country. He latterly received a Civil 
 List pension, and was honoured with the diplomas of the Royal and 
 other societies. He is described by Goldsmith in his poem, " Tl»e 
 Ketaliation." He died in 1809, aged seventy-five.
 
 226 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 certain general officer. ' Sir,' said Bos well, ' the gentleman is a 
 general, and I do not choose to enter into particulars.' " 
 
 " When Boswell had the rage of getting into the Guards, he 
 talked of it to John Home,* whose poetry breathed a martial 
 spirit, and therefore might approve his desire to be a soldier. 
 ' Sir,' said John Home, ' the Guards are no soldiers ; they are 
 just beefeaters, only they don't eat beef.' " 
 
 " Boswell was at Leyden in the year 1764. The Hon. Charles 
 Gordon t said to him with affected diffidence, in order to receive 
 a compliment, ' Mr. Boswell, I would willingly come and see you 
 for a day at Utrecht, but I am afraid I should tire you.' ' Sir,' 
 replied Boswell, ' I defy you to tire me for one day.' " 
 
 " When Boswell was passing through Leyden, in the year, 
 1764, he put up at the ' Golden Ball,' and was shown into the 
 great parlour, which, as in all the inns in Holland, is a public 
 room. As he was eating a sober bit of supper there entered 
 three roaring ^West Indians, followed by a large dog. They 
 made a deal of rude noise. The waiter thought it incumbent 
 upon him to make an apology for their roughness. ' Sir,' said he, 
 ' they are very good-natured gentlemen.' 'Yes, yes,' said Boswell, 
 ' I see they are very good-natured gentlemen, and in my opinion, 
 sir, the dog seems to be as good-natured as any of the three.' " 
 
 * The Eev. John Home, author of " Douglas," was horn at 
 Ancrum, Koxburghshire^ on the 22nd September, 1722. Having 
 studied for the Church, he was in 1741 ordained minister of Athel- 
 staneford. During the previous year he distinguished himself as 
 member of a volunteer corps in support of Government ; he was 
 taken prisoner by the rebels at the battle of Falkirk, but contrived to 
 escape from Doune Castle, where he was confined. In 1755 he 
 produced his tragedy of " Douglas," wliich soon became popular. 
 On account of encouraging theatricals, he was assailed by his clerical 
 brethren : he escaped deposition by resigning his charge. He obtained 
 a Civil List pension of £300, with the sinecure office of conservator of 
 Scots privileges at Campvere. He died 5th September, 1808, in 
 his eighty-sixth year. 
 
 t A younger son of WiUiam, second Earl of Aberdeen.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 227 
 
 *' When Mr. de Neitschutz, Grand Ecuyer du Prince d'Anhalt- 
 Dessau was sent to the King of Prussia to treat witli him, and 
 to beg that he would not demand such great subsidies,' the 
 King used to say, ' Mon ami, il faut soutenir des armees.' Je 
 ne suis pas en etat de la faire. Vous savez que je n'ai rien. II 
 faut que je vole.' " M. de Neitsciiutz. 
 
 " When Voltaire was at Berlin he used to be rude to the King 
 of Prussia. The King came into his room one day when he 
 had before him on a table a great parcel of his Majesty's verses, 
 which he no doubt put in order very freely. The King called to 
 him, ' Que faites-vous, Voltaire?' He replied, 'Sire, j 'arrange 
 votre linge sale.' " 
 
 M. Lestsch au'devant Gouvekneur du p. D'Anhalt. 
 
 " After the battle of Colline, where the King of Prussia was 
 sadly defeated, his Majesty stood in a musefull melancholy, 
 and looked through his glass at a battery of cannon which was 
 still playing and was within reach of him. His troops had all 
 retired, only the Scots General Grant stood behind him at a 
 little distance ; a cannon bullet took away the skirt of his coat, 
 and at last when he found that the King made no preparation 
 to retire, he came up to him and said, ' Est-ceque votre majeste 
 veut prendre la batterie tout seul ? ' The King looked at him 
 with approbation, and said, 'Aliens, mon ami,' and retreated. 
 ' Eh bien, Grant,' said he, ' c'est une triste affaire.' " 
 
 Mr. Secretary Burnet.* 
 
 " During one of his campaigns the King of Prussia composed 
 a sermon entitled 'Sermon sur le jour de jugement prech^ 
 devant I'Abbe de Prade, par son aumonier ordinaire I'lncredu- 
 lit^.' L'Abbe de Prade was his reader. Tlie sermon was a grave 
 discourse, full of Scripture phrases. It might have been 
 preached in any church in Europe."' 
 
 Mr. Secretary Burnet. 
 
 " Mr. Burnet was one day riding along \vith the Prussian 
 * Secretary to the Prussian Embassy.
 
 228 BOSAVELLIANA. 
 
 army through a wood. He heard behind him a voice crying, 
 ' March furt in der Deivells naam,' but did not think that the 
 King had been near him. He turned about, however, and there 
 was his Majesty's horse's mouth touching Burnet's horse's tail. 
 The King had lost a battle. The weather was bad. He was 
 muffled up in his great-coat, was in very bad humour, and 
 looked confoundedly sulky. Burnet was anxious to make way 
 for him, and immediately put spurs to his horse and sprung 
 away. The wood was so thick that the branches caught hold 
 of him and drove off his hat and wig. He had shaved his head 
 that morning, so that there he was, he sticking with his white 
 skull exposed to the elements. The King, notwithstanding his 
 ill-humour, could not help being diverted, and burst out into an 
 immense fit of laughter. He then said to Burnet, 'Monsieur, 
 je vous demande pardon, mais je m'en vais le reparer.' He then 
 called to a soldier, " Geve die Heer syn Hoed en zyn peruik.' " 
 
 Mr. Secretary Burnet. 
 
 " The King of Prussia sometimes used to amuse himself in 
 the most extraordinary' manner. After having played on his 
 flute till he was tired, he would say to the Abbd de Prade, 
 'AUons, si j'etois membre du Parlement d' Angleterre voici 
 comment je parlerais ;' and then he would harangue on the 
 balance of power, &c., like a very Pitt." 
 
 Mr. Secretary Burnet. 
 
 " The British Envoy's mail was once seized going from Berlin. 
 It was said to have been done by the Ambassador of France. 
 Mr. Mitchell said,* ' Je n'en crois rien.' * Pent etre,' said one, ' il 
 
 * Mr., afterwards Sir Andrew Mitchell, was only son of the Rev. 
 William Mitchell, minister of the High Church, Edinburgh, and 
 who had the singular distinction of being five times Moderator of 
 the General Assembly. After following legal pursuits at Edinburgh, 
 Mr. Mitchell was in 1741 appointed secretary to the Marquis of 
 Tweeddale, minister for the affairs of Scotland, and in 1747 was 
 chosen MP. for the Banff district of burghs. In 1751 he Avas sent 
 as ambassador to Brussels, and in 1753 was created a Knight of the
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 229 
 
 a re^u des ordres pour le ftiire et qii'est ce quo cela feroit,' said 
 Mitchell. 'Monsieur,' said the gentleman, 'si vous aviez re9u 
 des ordres du Eoi votre maitre de saisir une Malle ne voudriez 
 vous pas le faire ?' ' Monsieur,' replied Mr. Mitchell, ' Preniierre- 
 ment le Eoi mon maitre ne me donnera jamais des tellcs ordres. 
 En second lieu, assurement je ne les obeierois pas, "non," je lui 
 ecrirois, Si vous, Sire, voulez faire des choses comme cela, il faut 
 envoyer un voleur, et non pas tacher de faire un voleur de 
 votre Envoye.' " Mr. Mitchell himself. 
 
 " Boswell was presented to the Duke of Argyle,* at Whitton, 
 in the year 1760. The duke talked some time with him, and 
 was pleased, and seemed surprised that Boswell wanted to have 
 a commission in the guards. His Grace took Boswell's father 
 aside, and said, ' My lord, I like your son. That boy must not 
 be shot at for three and sixpence a day.'" 
 
 " Lord Auchinleck and his son were very different men. My 
 lord was sollid {sic) and composed ; Boswell was light and restless. 
 My lord rode very slow; Boswell was one day impatient to 
 get on, and begged my lord to ride a little faster ; ' for,' said he, 
 
 Bath and envoy extraordinary to the court of Prussia. He was a 
 great favourite with Frederick the Great, whom he accompanied in 
 his campaigns. He died at Berlin, on the 28th January, 1771. 
 Boswell became acquainted with Sir Andrew Mitchell during his 
 Continental tour. (See sitpra, pp. 43 — 47.) 
 
 * Archibald, third Duke of Argyll, was born in June, 1682. As 
 colonel of the 36th regiment he served under tlie Duke of jMarl- 
 borough. Devoting himself to civil affairs, he was in 1 705 nominated 
 Lord High Treasurer of Scotland ; in the following year he became a 
 commissioner on the Union, and in 17iO was appointed Justice 
 General. He was wounded at the battle of SherilTmuir in 1715, when 
 he held a command under his brother, the Duke of Argyll and 
 Greenwich. He succeeded his brother as Duke of Argyll in 1743, 
 and died 15th April, 1761. He founded the family residence at 
 Inverary, and there established a valuable library. He was a zealous 
 promoter of learning, and excelled in conversation.
 
 230 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 ' it is not the exercise which fatigues, but the hinging upon a 
 beast.' His father replied, 'What's the matter, man, how a 
 chield hings, if he dinna hing upon a gallows ? ' " 
 
 " When Captain Augustus Hervey was lying in the port of 
 Leghorn, some of the first people of the country paid him a 
 visit aboard his ship. He ordered his men to draw up a bucket 
 of water, and presented it to the nobles, bidding them drink 
 that. 'Why,' said they, ' 'tis salt water.' ' Is it?' said he. 'Then 
 know that wherever this water is found the King of Great 
 Britain is master.' " Captain Wake. 
 
 "Mr. Burnet went once into a Presbyterian kirk. The 
 minister lectured on these words, — ' You shall take no scrip for 
 your journey.' ' A scrip,' said he, ' my beloved brethren, was a 
 clockbag, a portmanteau, or a wallise.' " Himself. 
 
 " A gentleman was saying at Voltaire's table, ' J'ai lu un telle 
 chose.' ' Monsieur,' said Voltaire, ' il ne faut pas croire tout ce 
 qu' on a lu.' ' Monsieur,' replied he, ' j'ai pourtant lu tous vos 
 ouvrages.' " The Gentleman. 
 
 " Boswell said that to be a good rural poet a man must have 
 an appetite for the beauties of nature as another has for 
 his dinner. A man who has a poor stomach will never talk 
 with force of a good dinner ; nor will he whose taste is feeble 
 talk with force of a fine prospect. This kind of taste must be 
 felt, and cannot even be imagined by others." 
 
 " Boswell said that a dull fool was nothing, as he never showed 
 himself. The great thing, said he, is to have your fool well 
 furnished with animal spirits and conceit, and he'll display to 
 you a rich fund of risibility. He said this at a certain court in 
 Germany." 
 
 " A formal fellow at Paris paid a great many long-winded 
 compliments to Mademoiselle Amete, the Turk. When he had
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 231 
 
 finished, she said to the gentleman next her, ' Je nc puis pas 
 soutenir cet homme la ; il me parle commc un Dedicace.' " 
 
 My Lokd Marisoiial.* 
 
 " Boswell said that young people are often tempted to resign 
 themselves to a warm fancy or a strong benevolent passion, 
 because they have read that those who are thus agitated are 
 nobler beings, and enjoy a felicity superior to that of sedate 
 rational men. But let them consider that all these fine things 
 have been said by the hot-brained people themselves, and that 
 one who is drunk may and does boast as much his intoxicated 
 situation. The impartial method of judging what state of mind 
 is happiest is to hear the voice of the majority of sensible men, 
 most of whom, either when young or when drunk, have felt tlio 
 enticing delirium. If none approve it but such as immediately 
 feel it, we may pronounce it a false joy. For other states, of 
 mind, as the cool circumspection of wisdom, the moderate 
 tenderness of affection, the solemn ardour of devotion, the noble 
 firmness of manly honour, — these others approve of ; others wish 
 to possess." 
 
 * The celebrated George, tenth Earl Marischal, whom Boswell had 
 the honour of accompanying through Germany and Switzerland in 
 1763. Born about 1693, Lord Marischal held a high command in 
 the army of Queen Anne, and on her death signed the proclamation 
 of George I. Deprived of office by the Duke of Argyll, he joined the 
 Earl of Mar in the msurrection of 1715, and at the battle of SherifT- 
 muir commanded two squadrons of cavalry. In 1719 he made a 
 second attempt on behalf of the Chevalier. In the rising of 1745 he 
 took no part. Having by a residence in Prussia gained the favour of 
 Frederick the Great, he became Prussian ambassador at the courts of 
 France and Spain. In 1759 he revealed to Mr. Pitt, afterwards F^irl 
 of Chatham, the family compact of the house of Bourbon ; he was, 
 consequently, invited to the court of George II., and his attainder 
 Avas reversed. On possessing himself of his forfeited estates he pur- 
 posed to reside in Scotland, but on the urgent entreaty of the Prussian 
 monarch he returned to Berlin. He died, unmarried, at Potsdam, 
 on the 28th of May, 1778.
 
 232 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " Boswell asked, ' Why have we not a neat phrase to express 
 our being eager to see, equivalent to " I pricked up my ears " 
 when eager to hear ? ' " 
 
 "When Sir Adam Fergusson* was at Dusseldorf he admired 
 much an organ in one of the churches, and wished greatly to 
 hear an English tune upon it. Barnard, (nephew to the great 
 Sir John, and) a merchant at Dunkirk, was there. He begged of 
 the organist to give him liberty to play the vespers, which he 
 agi-eed to. Barnard played the solemn music very gravely, but 
 by way of a voluntary he gave ' Ally Croaker.' He, however, 
 adorned it with several variations, so that the organist said, 
 ' Monsieur, en que c'est un beau morceau.' " 
 
 Mr. Bernaed. 
 
 At the court of Saxe-Gotha there were two ladies of honour, 
 Mesdemoiselles de Eickslepen, sisters, very pretty, but very 
 little. Boswell said to a baron of the court, ' Monsieur, il faut 
 les prendre comme des alouettes, par la demi-douzaine.' " 
 
 " When Poniatowskyt was made king of Poland, anno 1764, 
 many of the first nobles opposed his election, as they imagined 
 that he would follow the system of the King of Prussia, and 
 introduce arbitrary power. Le Comte de Sapia, grand Ecuyer de 
 la Lithuanie, quitted his country in discontent. He passed 
 some time at the court of Gotha. One of the courtiers there 
 said to him, ' Monsieur, vous qui aimez tant la liberte vous 
 devez aller en Angleterre.' 'Dieu m'en garde!' cried he; 
 ' non ; il faut aller en France, pour apprendre nos nouveaux 
 devoirs.'" La Grande Maitresse de Gotha. 
 
 * Sir Adam Fergusson, Bart., of Kilkerran, LL.D., was elected M.P. 
 for Ayrshire in 1774 ; he afterwards sat for the city of Edinburgh. 
 He died 23rd September, 1813, at an advanced age. 
 
 f By the cabinets of St. Petersburg and Berlin Stanislas Ponia- 
 towski was presented to the Poles as their king in 1764 : owing to 
 the partition of his dominions he died broken-hearted at St. Peters- 
 burg in 1798.
 
 BOSWELLLVNA. 233 
 
 " Boswell showed some of his verses to a German professor, 
 who understood English. The professor was highly pleased 
 with them. When he laid them down Boswell said, ' I wrote 
 some of them last night.' ' Ah/ said the professor, ' I did not 
 know they had been yours, sir, or I should have praised them 
 more.* " 
 
 "A prince talked of a subject of learning — a piece of history, 
 and said, ' Je ne sais en veritc.' Another prince said, ' On 
 trouvera cela pent ^tre dans un dictiouuaire.' ' Il'm, oui,' said 
 
 third 
 
 another prince, * Oui, on le trouvera dans un dictionnaire.' " 
 
 I was present. 
 
 " Boswell said the English language was like the ancient 
 Corinthian brass. "When Corinth was burnt, the fortuitous 
 mixture of gold, silver, and copper produced a metal more ex- 
 cellent than any original one. So, by the different invasions of 
 England was produced a mixture of old British, German, and 
 French, which makes a language superior to any original tongue. 
 The proportions in the one case are as curious as in the other." 
 
 " Boswell compared himself to the ancient Corinthian brass. 
 • I am,' said he, ' a composition of an infinite variety of ingre- 
 dients. I have been formed by a vast number of scenes of the 
 most different natures, and I question if any uniform education 
 could have produced a character so agreable ' " (sic). 
 
 "The Dutch bourgeois generally wear coats and wigs of 
 prodigious size, by no means made to fit them ; but by way of 
 so much cloth and so much hair Boswell said, ' Les Hollandois 
 portent des habits et des peruques comme des Hardes. 
 
 " Krimbero-, grand maitre de madame la Marcgrave de Baden 
 Baden, said of the Marcgrave of Baden Dourlach, ' Lcs autres 
 princes s'amusent des amusements, mais ce prince s'amusa des 
 affaires.'" ^ ^^^'^^ P^'^^^"*-
 
 234 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 "Boswell said that a great company was just a group of 
 tetcs-dj-tetes" 
 
 " The father of young M. Gaio, at Strasburg, had an immense 
 cask of prodigious fine old Ehenish. His maitre d'hotel came 
 and told him that, unfortunately, it had burst the cask and was 
 totally lost. M. Gaio (having eat his evening soup), replied, 
 ' Eh bien, mon vin est lu/ " M. Gaio le Tils. 
 
 "The uncle of young M. Gaio at Strasbourg had a set of 
 Dresden tea china which he valued very much. As one of his 
 servants was bringing it hastily in one day he fell and broke 
 the whole set. His master stepped calmly forward, helped 
 him up, and called to another servant, 'Ecoutez, donnez une 
 verre du vin de Bourgogne a Frangois, je crois qu'il a en peur.' " 
 
 M. Gaio le Fils. 
 
 " Lord Eglintoune said to his brother,* Colonel Montgomerie, 
 who was to be his heir, ' If I live, Archie, I'll take care of you.' 
 ' Yes, my lord,' replied the colonel, ' and if you die I'll take care 
 of myself.'" Lokd Auciiinleck. 
 
 " Mr, Needham -f- went with another gentleman to call upon 
 M. Diderot. A comely well-dressed lady opened the door to 
 them. The gentleman said, ' Madame est sans doute la femme 
 de M. Diderot.' She, with an air of smiling satisfaction, replied, 
 ' Monsieur, les philosophes ne ses marient point,' " 
 
 Mk. Needhaivi. 
 
 " Mr. Needham said that Eousseau's not complying with the 
 
 * Alexander, tenth Earl of Eglinton, died in 17G9, and was 
 succeeded by his brother, Colonel Archibald Montgomery. 
 
 t John Turbervillo Needham, a priest of the Eoman Catholic 
 Church, and an eminent physiologist, was born 1713 and died 1781. 
 He received honours from many of the learned societies, and was some- 
 time director of the Academy of Sciences at Brussels. In botanical 
 science his name is perpetuated in the genus needhamia.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 235 
 
 common established ceremonies of society was like a Quaker . 
 saying Thee and Thou, and not pulling off his hat." 
 
 I was present. 
 
 "The Syndics or Magistrates of Geneva wear prodigious 
 periwigs. M. de Voltaire said to them, ' jMessieurs, vous 
 repandez votre poudre dans toutes les territoires voisines.' " 
 
 Grand Baillif d'Yuerdun. 
 
 " Erskine * and Boswell were one day sauntering in Leicester 
 Fields and talking of the famous scheme of squaring the circle. 
 ' Come, come,' said Boswell, * let us circle the square, and that 
 will be as good ; ' so these two poets took a walk round the 
 square, laughing very heartily at the conceit." 
 
 " Mr. Richardson, chaplain to Sir Joseph Yorke,t and another 
 clergyman were walking near a village by Cambridge, where 
 were a number of Methodists. They saw a child of four year old 
 lying accross {sic) the road, and immediately ran up to lift it up, 
 when they heard a number of people cry, ' Let it alone, let it 
 alone, it's convicted, it's convicted.' They asked, ' Pray, how ? so 
 young a child has not been at church.' ' No, but its father and 
 mother have, and the Lord has been dealing with their child.' " 
 
 From himself. 
 
 " Boswell said that Mademoiselle de Maasdain, at the Hague, 
 was as black as a chimney. ' Then,' said the Ptev. Dr. Maclaiue, 
 ' her husband would be a chimney-sweeper.' " 
 
 " Boswell said that Mademoiselle de Zuyl was too vivacious, 
 and crowded her hon mots in conversation, so that one had nut 
 time to examine them one by one, and see theii- beauties. He 
 said, she used to make people run through the Vatican, where 
 
 * The Hon. Captain Andrew Erskine. 
 
 f Sir Joseph Yorke was tliird son of Lord Chancellor Hard^\'icko. 
 After serving in the army till he attaineJ the rank of general, he was 
 appomted ambassador at the Hague, where he remained thirty years. 
 In 1788 he was created Baron Dover. Ho died on the 2nd December, 
 1792.
 
 236 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 you glance over a number of fine pictures, but have not time to 
 look at and relish any." 
 
 "Fordyce was much scandalized at a French barber who 
 shaved him in Paris, and having caught a fly, called it cctte 
 machine la. ' Why,' said Boswell, ' in England we call a machine 
 a fly, why may not the French call a fly a machine ? ' " 
 
 " Andrew Stuart,* ]Srairne,f Colonel Scott, and Boswell went 
 in a coach from the Hagvie to Eotterdam. The Dutch coachman 
 was so heavy a blockhead that Andrew Stuart took the reins 
 from him and drove. A mole, somehow or other, was seen upon 
 the road. ' Well,' said Boswell, ' when Mr. Andrew Stuart drove 
 a Dutch coach, he drove so hard that the very moles came above 
 ground to look at him.' " 
 
 "In the year 1715 Lord Marischal observed a Highlander 
 crying, and looking at the poor fellow he observed he had no 
 shoes. He sent one to him, who spoke Erse, and bid him not 
 be cast down, for he should have shoes. ' Sir,' said the High- 
 lander, ' I want no shoes ; I am crying to see a Macdonald 
 retire from his enemy.' " From Lord Marischal. 
 
 " In the year 1715, when my Lord Marischal was preparing 
 to leave London and join the Stuart army, Fletcher of 
 Salton} came to him at seven in the morning, asked a dish 
 
 * Andrew Stuart was counsel on the Hamilton side of the 
 Douglas case, and fought a duel with Edward, afterwards Lord Thurlow, 
 the leading counsel for Mr. Archibald Douglas. He published, in 
 1773, " Letters to Lord Mansfield," on the Douglas case, which, as 
 models of polished invective, have been compared with the Letters of 
 Junius. In 1798 he issued a " Genealogical History of the Stewarts." 
 
 f AVilliam Nairne, son of Sir William Nairne, Bart., of Dun- 
 sinnan, was admitted advocate in 1755. He was in 1758 appointed 
 conjunct commissary-clerk of Edinburgh, and in 1786 was raised to 
 the bench, when he assumed the judicial title of Lord Dunsinnan. 
 He died in March, 1811. 
 
 \ A zealous patriot, deeply imbued with republican notions, 
 Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun opposed the arbitrary measures of the
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 237 
 
 of tea to get his servant out of the way, and then said, ' My 
 lord, you are now going to join with people who will not ha 
 honest, nor so steady as yourself. I advise you, don't go.' I^Iy 
 lord answered, ' Sir, I shall not dispute wliether King James or 
 King George has the best right to the crown. I know you 
 are for no king. But, as things are, I think we may get rid of 
 the union which oppresses us.' ' My lord,' replied lletcher, 
 * it is a good thing to be young : when I was your age I 
 thought as you do, and would have acted as you do; but I 
 am now growing old, I have been sorely brought down by 
 sickness, and I find my mind is failing with my body." 
 
 Lord Maiiisciial. 
 
 " Boswell went from Berlin to Charlottenburg while the 
 entertainments were there on account of the betrothing of the 
 Princess Elizabeth of Brunswick to the Prince of Prussia ; all 
 the ladies and gentlemen pressed eagerly to get places at the 
 windows of the palace, in order to see the royal families at 
 supper. Boswell found this a little ridiculous, so came up to 
 his acquaintances and said, 'Aliens, allons, je vous en prie 
 voyons la seconde table ; je vous assure il vaut mieux la peine ; 
 ces gens mangent plus que les autres ? ' (' Come, come, pray do 
 let us go see the second table ; I assure you it is more worth 
 while ; they eat more than the others.' ) " 
 
 "Boswell said that Sir Joseph Yorke was so anxious lest 
 people should forget that he was an ambassador, that he held 
 his head as high and spoke as little as possible. As in the 
 infancy of painting it was found necessary to write below a 
 picture, this is a cow, or this is a horse, so from the moutli 
 of Sir Joe cometh a label with these words — ' I am an 
 ambassador.' " 
 
 " Boswell said that the descriptions of human life which we 
 
 House of Stuart, and after the revolution proved, from his irritable 
 temper, a considerable incubus on the Government of William III. 
 He violently opposed the imion, and subsequeutly to that event retired 
 from public affairs. He died at London in 17 IC, aged sixty-throe.
 
 238 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 find in books are very false, because written in retirement. 
 When a painter would take a portrait or a landscape, he is 
 always sure to be present, whereas a painter of human life gets 
 away from the object, buries himself in the shade, or basks in 
 the sunshine, and consequently gives either too black or too 
 gay a creature of his imagination, which he calls human life." 
 
 " Two Scotch Highlanders were benighted, and lay down to 
 sleep on the side of a mountain. After they had lain a little, one 
 of them got up, but soon returned again. The other asked him, 
 'What's this, Donald? what have you been about?' Duncan 
 replied, * I was only bringing a stane to put under my head.* 
 Donald started up and cried, ' H — g your effeminacy, man ! 
 canna ye sleep without a stane aneath your head ? ' " 
 
 Mk. Burnet. 
 
 " After the Prince of Prussia had been defeated by the Aus- 
 trians, the King, who was marching desperate against them, 
 wrote to him thus : — ' Mon frere, Daun vous a traitd comme un 
 petit Ecolier. II vous afouet(5 avec des verges. Un homme 
 qui va mourir, n'a rien d'dissimuler.' " Mr. Burnet. 
 
 " Lord Auchinleck was one of the most firm and indefatigable 
 judges that ever lived. Brown at Utrecht said that he was one 
 of those great beams which are placed here and there to support 
 the edifice of Society." I was present. 
 
 " Boswell said that Berkley * reasoned himself out of house 
 and home." 
 
 " An unhappy hypochondriack complained that in his gloomy 
 hours he believed himself a fool. A hard-hearted wag was 
 cruel enough to say to him, ' Crede quod habes et liabes.' " 
 
 " Captain Bertie was in one of three English ships who 
 advanced against seven French. The sailors were so overjoyed 
 
 * The celebrated Bishop Berkeley, who maintained the non-exist- 
 ence of matter as one of his philosophical opinions.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 230 
 
 at this noble opportunity that they huzzaed and threw their 
 hats overboard, and those who had no hats, their wigs. They 
 fought and beat the French licartily." Captain Bertie.* 
 
 " If those who have no taste for the fine arts woukl fairly own 
 it, perhaps it would be better. ]\Ir. Damer and Captain Howe, 
 two true-born Englishmen, were in the great gallery at Florence ; 
 they submitted quietly to be shown a few of the pictures, but 
 seeing the gallery so immensely long their impatience burst 
 forth and they tried, for a bet, who should hop first to the end 
 of it." The Hon. Mr. HowE.f 
 
 " When Boswell came first into Italy, and saw the extreme 
 profligacy of the ladies, he said, 'Italy has been called the garden 
 of Europe, I think it is the Covent Garden.'" 
 
 " Churchill, | in his abusive poem against Scotland called the 
 ' Prophecy of Famine,' had the following Une : — 
 
 * Far as the eye could reach no tree was seen.' 
 
 * The Hon. Peregrine Bertie, third son of "Willoughby, third Earl 
 of Abingdon, was born in 1741. He became a captain in the Royal 
 Navy, and was sometime M.P. for Oxford. He died in 1790. 
 
 t General the Hon. Sir William Howe led the troops at the battle 
 of Bunker's Hill in 1775, and was subsequently appointed com- 
 mander of the British forces in America. As an officer he somewhat 
 lacked energy, but he was much esteemed in private Hfe. Captain 
 Howe, mentioned in the anecdote, was Sir William's elder brother, 
 afterwards the celebrated Admiral Earl Howe. Sir WiUiam Howe 
 
 died in 1814. 
 
 + Charles ChurcliiU, now nearly forgotten, enjoyed considerable 
 reputation as a satirical poet. Bred to the Church, he abandoned the 
 clerical profession and embraced infidelity. He acted honourably in 
 discharging his debts, but was in other respects profligate. He died 
 on the°4th November, 1764, in his thirty-third year. His political 
 satire, referred to m the text, was the most successful of his poetical 
 writings.
 
 240 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 Mr. Jamieson, a true Scot, said, ' Faith, I wish I had as many 
 Churchills to hang upon them as there's trees.' " 
 
 " Boswell had a travelling box in which he carried his hats 
 and his papers. He was saying one day, ' What connection now 
 have they together ? ' Eeplied Mr. Lumisden,* ' They have both 
 a connection with your head.' " 
 
 "An honest Scots sailor who had been wounded in the 
 service took up a public-house at Dundee, and on his sign had 
 liis story painted. First he was drawn with both his legs 
 firing away, with this inscription, — ' Thus I was ; ' then with one 
 leg, and inscribed, 'Thus I am, the Fortune of war.'" 
 
 JA-MES EAMSAY.t 
 
 Mk. Willison." X 
 
 " A young fellow by chance let a china plate fall. His 
 father asked him, ' Pray, sir, what way did you do that ? ' He 
 
 * Andrew Lumsden belonged to an old family in the county 
 of Berwick. After the suppression of the rebellion in 1745 he pro- 
 ceeded to Eome, where he became private secretary to Prince Charles 
 Edward. He latterly returned to Britain, and established his resi- 
 dence at Edinburgh. He pubUshed " Eemarks on the Antiquities of 
 Eome and its Environs," a pleasing and judicious performance. 
 He died on the 26th December, 1801, aged eighty-one. 
 
 I The Eev. James Eamsay, one of the earliest opponents of the 
 slave trade, was born at Fraserburgh in 1733. A surgeon in the 
 Eoyal Navy, he incurred a serious accident, and thereafter abandoned 
 his profession and took orders. For some time he held two livings 
 at St. Christopher's, worth ,£700 a year. He returned to England 
 in 1781, and became vicar of Teston in Kent. His work against 
 the slave trade appeared in 1786. He died on the 20th July, 1789. 
 
 X The Eev, John Willison ministered at Dundee from 1716 till his 
 death, which took place in May, 1750. An eminent theologian, his 
 numerous writings found a ready acceptance, and have been frequently 
 reprinted. Mr. Willison was a leader in the Church courts ; he was 
 much esteemed for his urbanity.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 241 
 
 very gravely took up another, and let it fall in tlic same manner: 
 ' That way, sir.' " Colonel Edmonstoune." *' 
 
 " A very big man said he intended often to have spoke in tlie 
 House of Commons. ' I wish you had, sir,' said IMattliew 
 Henderson ; ' for if you had not been heard, you would at least 
 have been seen.' " Capt. Keith Stuaut. 
 
 P. 1. "April. — My father said to me, ' lam much pleased with 
 your conduct in every respect.' After all my anxiety while abroad, 
 here is the most perfect approbation and calm of mind. I never 
 felt such sollid (sic) happiness. But I feel I am not so happy 
 with this approbation and this calm as I expected to be. Alas ! 
 such is the condition of humanity, that we are not allowed here 
 the perfect enjoyment of the satisfaction which arises even from 
 worth. But why do I say alas ! when I really look upon this 
 life merely as a transient state ? 
 
 P. 2. " I must stay at Auchinleck. I have there just the kind 
 of complaining proper for me. All must complain, and I more 
 than most of my fellow-creatures. 
 
 P. 3. " A man is but in proportion to the impressions which 
 his power makes. I see there is variety of powers." 
 
 "Saturday, April 19th. — This morning my wortliy father 
 wak'd me early and told me of the sudden death of my 
 Lord Justice Clerk (Lord Minto),f and repeated witli a caha 
 solemnity, — 
 
 * Trahimur saevo rapiente fato.' " 
 
 * Colonel Archibald Edmonstone, of Duntreath, created a baronet 
 in 1774, was in 1761 elected M.P. for the county of Dumbarton and 
 the Ayr bm-ghs. He died in July, 1807. 
 
 t Sir Gilbert EUiot, of Minto, P>art., Lord Justice Clerk, died at 
 Minto, Roxburghshire, on the IGth April, 1766, aged seventy-three. 
 His father, who bore the same Christian name, was the first baronet 
 of Minto, and a senator of the College of Justice. His grandson w;ls 
 
 created Earl of Minto. 
 
 R
 
 242 BOSWELLIANA, 
 
 " A modern man of taste found fault with the avenues at 
 Auchinleck, and said he wished to see stragling trees. ' I wish, 
 said Boswell, ' I could see stragling fools in this world.' " 
 
 " Boswell said that business itself helps a man on just a^s the, 
 chaise going down a hill helps on the horse which is in the 
 shafts. ' When,' said he, ' I think of the fatigues of the law I 
 tremble. But when I have once get on the harnessing of a 
 Process, away I go without difficulty. This is just ; let a man 
 never despond as to anything, let him be yok'd, and no fear.' " 
 
 " When Boswell observed that the Lords of Session were often 
 inattentive, he said he wished he had liberty to speak to the 
 bench as one speaks to a company, where if any one whom one 
 wishes to attend appears to be absent, one can rouse him by 
 directing the discourse particularly to him. ' So,' said Boswell, 
 ' I would say, " My Lord Sagely, your lordship must surely 
 agree," &c. ; " But besides, my Lord Doubtfull, it appears," &c.' " 
 
 " Boswell had a great aversion to the law, but forced himself 
 to enter upon that laborious profession in compliance with 
 the anxious desire of his father, for whom he had the greatest 
 regard. After putting on the gown, he said with great good 
 humour to his brother advocates, ' Gentlemen, I am prest into 
 the service here ; but I have observed that a prest man, either by 
 sea or land, after a little time does just as well as a volunteer.' " 
 
 " Lord Auchinleck said the great point for a judge is to 
 conduct a cause with safety and expedition, like a skillfull 
 pilot. * The Agents always endeavour to keep a cause afloat. 
 But I keep my eye upon the haven, and the moment I have 
 got him fairly in order I give one hearty push, and there he's 
 landed.' " 
 
 " Boswell said when we see a man of eminence we desire 
 nothing more than to be of his acquaintance ; we then wish to 
 have him as a companion ; and when m'c have attained that we 
 are impatient till we gain a superiority over him. Such is the 
 restless progress of man ! "
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 243 
 
 " A sailor, who had been long out at sea, was on his return 
 asked by a companion what sort of voyage they had. ' Why,' 
 said he, ' a very good one ; only we had prayers twice. But one 
 of the times there was no more occasion for them than if you 
 and I should fall down and pray this minute.' " 
 
 Lord Loudoun.* 
 
 " My Lord Stair,t who wrote a very bad hand, sent once to 
 my Lord Loudoun a written commission to be read to Sir Philip 
 Honeywood.if Lord Loudoun received the letter at the British 
 Coffee-house, where he was sitting after dinner with some 
 friends taking a very hearty bottle ; and whether the wine made 
 him see double or no, so it was that he read the commission 
 very distinctly. Next morning he went to wait on Sir Philip 
 Honeywood, and being then quite cool and in his sober senses 
 he could not read a word of it, and neither could Sir Philip. 
 
 * Of John, fourth Earl of Loudoun, Boswell in his " Scottish Tour " 
 thus writes: — " He did more service to the county of Ayr in general, 
 as well as to individuals in it, than any man we have ever had. . . 
 The tenderness of his heart was proved in 1745-6, when he had an 
 important command in the Highlands, and behaved with a generous 
 humanity to the unfortunate. I cannot figure a more honest poli- 
 tician ; for though his interest in our country 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 sanguine 
 expectations. His kind and dutifid attention to his mother was un- 
 remittent. At his house was true hospitality, a plain but a plentiful 
 table ; and every guest being left at perfect freedom, felt himself quite 
 easy and happy. While I live I shall honour the memory of this 
 amiable man." Boswell relates that, having sent a message that he 
 and Dr. Johnson purposed to dine with him, the messenger reported 
 that the earl "jumped for joy." John, fourth earl of Loudoun, was 
 born in 1705, and died in 1782. 
 
 f John, fifth earl of Stair, born 1720, died 1789. Joining the 
 army, he attained the rank of captain. He composed several pamph- 
 lets on political topics. 
 
 t General Philip Honywood was a cadet of the House of Hony- 
 wood, Evington, baronet ; he died in 1785.
 
 244 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 Lord Loudoun could not go back to Lord Stair and tell liim his 
 hand was not legible, so Sir Philip trusted to Lord Loudoun's 
 memory of what he had read the day before, and could not then 
 read at all, a most curious fact. When the Duke of Cumberland 
 was told of it he said, ' Loudoun, why did you not stay and dine 
 with Sir Philip, and then you would both have read it.' " 
 
 Lord Loudoun. 
 
 " Mr. Clark, uncle to Baron Clark, a most curious mortal, who 
 had been bred a surgeon, had travelled over the greatest part of 
 the world, and always walked. He had the misfortune to break 
 one of his legs, and two pieces of the bone came out of it. He 
 had them drest, and made hafts to a knife and fork of them. 
 When he was dying he sent for Doctor Clark * and the Baron, f 
 ' Now, gentlemen,' said he, ' this knife and fork will be the most 
 valuable part of my executory, and I'll leave them to any of you 
 two who shall give me the best inscription to put upon them. 
 The Doctor, who was a fine classical scholar, tried a good many 
 times, but at length the baron fairly got the better of him by a 
 most elegant and well-adapted inscription, — 
 
 ' Quse terra nostri non plena laboris 1 ' " 
 
 Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " Campbell of Suckoth J and his son were both men of great 
 
 * John Clerk, a cadet of the house of Clerk, of Pennycuik, was 
 born in 1689, and having studied medicine, became the first physician 
 in Scotland. In 1740 he was elected President of the Eoyal College 
 of Physicians. He died in 1757, 
 
 t Sir John Clerk, second baronet of Pennycuik, was appointed a 
 Baron of Exchequer in 1707. He was a patron of Allan Eamsay, and 
 an ingenious antiquary. From his pen proceeded the song com- 
 mencing, "0 merry may the maid be that marries the miller." He 
 died 4th October, 1755. 
 
 J Tlie Campbells of Succoth are descended from, a branch of tlie 
 ducal house of Argyll, their ancestors possessing Lochow, in Argyle- 
 shire (Nisbefs Heraldry). John Campbell of Succoth, mentioned in 
 the text, was progenitor of Archibald Campbell of Succoth, Principal 
 Clerk of Session, and of Sir Islay Campbell, Lord President of the 
 Court of Session.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 245 
 
 wit. The father had been constantly attached to the Duke of 
 Argyle, but had never got the least assistance from him, upon which 
 the son went and paid court to the Duke of Hamilton, llis 
 dutchess {sic) was then of the Spencer family.* So young Suckoth 
 planted a mount, which he called Mount Spencer. The dutchess 
 made him a present of some fine foreign trees in flower-pots, 
 so lie got a cart and a couple of horses from his father to 
 briiig them home with, but most of them broke by the way. 
 Tlie old man was not pleased that his son liad deserted his 
 chief, so he says to him, ' Dear John, why will you pay court to 
 the House of Hamilton, for I see naething ye get frae them but 
 a wheen broken pigs V ' Sir,' says he, ' broken pigs are as good 
 as broken promises.' ' Very true,' John, ' but they're no sae dear 
 o' the carriage.'" Lord Auciiixleck. 
 
 "Sir William Gordon -f- wanted a servant who could write 
 well. 'My father,' said he, 'knew of a very clever fellow, but 
 the most drunken, good-for-nothing dog that ever lived.' ' Oli,' 
 said Sir William, ' no matter for that, let him be sent for.' So 
 when he came Sir William asked him a great many questions, 
 to which Brodie answered most distinctly. At last lie asked, 
 him, ' Can you write Latin, sir ? ' ' Can your honour read it 'i ' 
 said he. Sir William was quite fond of him, and had him 
 drest out to all advantage. One day, at his own table, he 
 was telling a story. ' Not so, sir,' said Brodie, who was 
 standing at his back. ' You dog,' said he, ' how do you know ? ' 
 ' Because I have heard your honour tell it before.' He lived 
 with Sir William more than seven years." 
 
 LOKD AUCIIINLECK. 
 
 * Anne, third wife of James lil'th Duke of Hamilton, was daughter 
 and co-heiress of Edmund Spencer, Esq., of lieudlesham, in the 
 county of Suffolk. 
 
 •j- Sir William Gordon of Park, Bart., was grandson on the mother's 
 side of the celebrated Archbishop Sharp. He joined Prince Cliarles 
 Edward in 1745, and was attainted, but the attainder was afterwards 
 reversed. He died at Douay, 5th June, 1751.
 
 246 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " Sir William Gordon was always a singular character. When 
 he came to be eighteen it was necessary for him to choose a 
 curator, and he chose his own livery servant, ' for,' said he, ' one 
 is plagued seeking for a curator to sign papers with you, and 
 sometimes they refuse to sign." Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " Mr. Charles Cochrane * said one day to my Lord Justice 
 Clerk (Charles Erskine f), 'Pray, my lord, what is the reason 
 that there never was a gentleman a ruling elder, who was not 
 either a knave or a very weak man ? ' ' Ay, Charles,' said he, 
 ' why, I'm a ruling elder myself, and what do you take me to 
 be ?' 'A very weak man, my lord,' " Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 "Sir Walter Pringle,J afterwards Lord Newhall, was apt to 
 be very passionate when he thought a lord did not hear him 
 properly. One day he appeared before Lord Forglen, § who 
 
 * Charles Cochrane, of Ochiltree, grandson of the first Earl of 
 Dundonald, succeeded his mother in the estate of Culross. He died 
 in 1752. 
 
 ■\ Charles Erskine, of Tinwald, third son of Sir Charles Erskine, 
 Bart., of Alva, was admitted advocate in 1711. He was elected M.P. 
 for the county of Dumfries in 1722, and nominated Solicitor-General 
 in 1725. Raised to the bench in 1744 by the judicial title of Lord 
 Tinwald, he was in 1748 promoted as Lord Justice Clerk. He died 
 at Edinburgh, on the 5th April, 1763. Lord Tinwald combined a 
 dignified deportment with much suavity of manner. 
 
 :j: Sir Walter Pringle, of ^Newhall, was called to the Bar in 1687. 
 After enjoying a high reputation as a pleader, he was raised to 
 the bench, as Lord Newhall, in June, 1718. He died 14th Decem- 
 ber, 1736, and the judges in their robes attended his funeral. The 
 Faculty of Advocates commended him in their records, and the poet 
 Hamilton, of Bangor, composed his epitaph. 
 
 § Sir Alexander Ogilvy of Forglen, Bart., second son of George 
 Ogilvy, second Lord Banff, was Commissioner for the Burgh of Banff 
 from 1702 to 1707. Admitted advocate, he was in 1706 appointed 
 a Lord of Session, when he assumed the title of Lord Forglen. He 
 died 30th March, 1727.
 
 BOSWELLI/LNA. 247 
 
 was very heavy. Sir Walter opened his cause. The other party 
 answered, and among other objections which they stated, they 
 insisted on some trilling point of form, that the cause liad not 
 been regularly put up upon the wall. Sir Walter replied to all 
 their objections with accuracy and spirit, but took no notice of 
 the trifling point of form. 'Lord Forglen,' said Sir Walter, 
 ' you have pleaded your cause very well, but what do you say 
 to the wall ? ' ' Indeed,' said he, ' my lord, I have been speaking 
 to it this half-hour;' and off he went in a great passion." 
 
 Loud Auciiinleck. 
 
 "Jack Bowes, an Englishman, who was married to a noted 
 midwife at Edinburgh, and was really mad, but had great 
 humour, got up one day on the steps which lead up to the New 
 Kirk (the lady's steps), and there he gathered a crowd about 
 him, and preached to them. ' Gentlemen,' said he, ' you will 
 find my text in the 2nd Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy, the 4th 
 chapter, and there the 13th verse, 'The cloak that 1 left at 
 Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the 
 books, but especially the parchments.* 'We insist upon the first 
 clause. We see, gentlemen, from these words that Paul was 
 a presbyter, for he wore a cloak. He does not say the gown 
 which I left at Troas, but the cloak which I left at Troas with 
 Carpus, when thou comest bring with thee. Timothy, we all 
 know, was a bishop. Now, my friends, the doctrine I would 
 inculcate from this is, that a presbyter had a bishop for his 
 baggageman.'" Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " A drover owed another , as the price of lambs. 
 
 His creditor came and craved time for the money. ' John,' said 
 he, ' let me alone for a fortnight, for I really cannot pay you 
 sooner.' The creditor insisted, and called him before a judge and 
 put him to his oath. He swore positively that he owed no such 
 debt. After the court was over, the creditor asked him how he 
 could swear against what he had owned so often. ' Because,' 
 said he, ' you forced me, and I had nothing else for it ; but, 
 however, John, you shall lose nothing by it, for I shall give you
 
 248 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 my bill for the money payable in a fortnight,' and actually he 
 did give his bill and paid him accordingly. A most wonderful 
 mixture of impiety and honesty." Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " isir William Gordon would needs make a library because 
 my Lord Sunderland made one, but all he wanted was just dear 
 books. He came in one day to Vanderaa's shop, in Leyden, 
 and asked if he had got any dear new books. Vanderaa showed 
 
 him the ' Thesaurus Italise et Sicilise ' in volumes. Sir 
 
 William turned to Dr. Cooper and said, ' Pray, Doctor, have I 
 got that book ? ' ' No, Sir William, nor do I think you have 
 occasion for it.' * Mr. Cooper, I cannot be without that book.' 
 ' Upon my word. Sir William, I think you might very well be 
 without it.' 'There, Mr. Cooper, you and I difier. — Mr. 
 Vanderaa, let that book be packed up and sent for me to 
 London.'" Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " Dr. Taylor, the oculist, was one evening supping at William 
 Earl of Dumfries's, at Edinburgh. He harangued with his usual 
 fluency and impudence, and boasted that he knew the thoughts 
 of everybody by looking at their eyes. The first Lady Dumfries,* 
 who was hurt with his behaviour, asked him with a smile of 
 contempt, ' Pray, sir, do you kuow what I am thinking ? ' 
 ' Yes, madam,' said he. ' Then,' replied the countess, ' it's very 
 safe, for I am sure you w^ill not repeat it.' " 
 
 Dr. Webster, who was present. 
 
 " Wlien the first Lady Dumfries was within a quarter of an 
 hour of her death, she showed an attention to the interests of 
 religion, and at the same time an address equal to that of any 
 statesman. The earl came down from her all in tears, and told 
 
 * The first wife of William , fourth earl of Dumfries, was the Lady 
 Anne Gordon, only daughter of William, second Earl of Aberdeen. 
 She died in 1755.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 24-9 
 
 it to the Rev. Mr. Webster. ' My lord,' said she, ' you liave 
 always shown a proper regard to the ordinances of religion. 
 People have been pleased to say that you did so out of compli- 
 ment to me. Providence is now giving your lordsliip an oppor- 
 tunity to show that it was entirely from yourself.' " 
 
 Dr. Webster. 
 
 "John Lord Hope* was educated at home about his father's 
 house, full of conceit, full of petulance. His mother, the first 
 Lady Hopetown, stood much in awe of my lord, but when he 
 was not present was. very lively and agreeable. One night at 
 supper Lord Hope had made some figure of the crumbs of his 
 bread, and plagued all the company to tell what it was. Many 
 flattered him ; some called it a pretty summerhouse ; some, one 
 of the ruins of Eome, and so made him exceedingly vain. He 
 at last applied to my lady his mother. ' Madam,' said he, ' you 
 have not told me what you think it is.' ' Well,' said she, ' if 
 you will have what I think it, I shall tell you I think it a 
 monument of a young lord's folly.' " Dr. Webster. 
 
 " Mr. William Nairne observed that it may be said of a well- 
 employed barrister who lays by much money, what Horace says 
 of the ant, — 
 
 ' Ore trahit quodcunque potest atque addit acervo.' " 
 
 I was present. 
 
 "A gentleman expended immense sums of money in attempting 
 to improve a barren soil. Boswell observed 'that the gen- 
 tleman was as busy burying gold as others are in digging it 
 
 > >> 
 up. 
 
 * John Lord Hope succeeded his father in 1742 as second Earl of 
 Hopetoun. A nobleman of considerable parts, he was appointed ouo 
 of the lords of poHce in Scotland, and in I7r)4 was noniiuatod Lord 
 High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland. lie died 12th. 
 February, 1781, aged seventy-seven.
 
 230 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " It has often occurred to me that artificial passions are 
 stronger than real ones, just as a wall built with good mortar is 
 found to be harder and worse to separate than the natural rock. 
 A passion for pageantry, and many more of the passions generated 
 in civilized life, often influence men more than the real genuine 
 passions natural to man." 
 
 " Cullen, the mimic,* had a wretched manner of his own. He 
 was one forenoon reading Lord Mansfield's admirable speech on 
 the Privilege Bdl. Several of our brother advocates were 
 listening to him. I could not help laughing, for I said hearing 
 Lord Mansfield's speech read by Cullen was like hearing a 
 piece of Handel's music played on a (trump) Jew's harp." 
 
 " I have observ'^ed that business has a different effect on the 
 spirits of different men. It sinks the spirits of some and raises 
 the spirits of others. To the spirits of some, a variety of affairs 
 are like stones put into a pool of water, which make the water 
 rise in proportion to the quantity of stones ; to the spirits of 
 others, affairs {des affaires) are like sponges put into a pool of 
 water, which suck it up. Men of great firmness can retain their 
 vivacity amidst a multiplicity of business. The King of Prussia 
 is a distinguished example." f 
 
 * Robert Cullen, advocate, was eldest son of William Cullen, M.D., 
 the celebrated physician. He was called to the Scottish bar iu 1 7G4, 
 and was early noted for his forensic talents. Contrary to the estimate 
 formed of him by Boswell, he was held in general esteem for his 
 courteous manners, while his powers of mimicry were of a first order. 
 He was appointed a Lord of Session in 1796, by the title of Lord 
 Cullen. He died at Edinburgh on the 28th November, 1810. 
 
 t BosweU's allusion to Frederick the Great is evidently founded on 
 a remark of Dr. Johnson's. Conversing with Dr. Eobertson, the his- 
 torian, in 1778, Johnson remarked, " The true strong and sound mind 
 is the mind that can embrace equally great things and small. Now 
 I am told the King of Prussia will say to a servant, 'Bring me a bottle 
 of such a wine, which came in such a year ; it lies in such a corner of 
 the cellar.' I would have a man great in great things, and elegant in 
 little things."
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 251 
 
 "Mr. John Petticrew,* minister of Go van, was one of the 
 originals amongst the clergy of Scotland, of which there were 
 many in the last age. His presbytery was once violently divided 
 who should be moderator in the room of one Mr. Love,f then 
 in the chair. While they were disputing with vast keenness 
 Mr. Petticrew came in, and being asked his opinion, he said, 
 ' Moderator, let brotherly love continue.' The presbytery took 
 his advice, and so their disputes were ended in good humour." 
 
 Lord Auchinleck, 
 
 "Cullen, the mimick,;]: was excessively ugly, having most 
 horrible teeth, and, upon the whole, a physiognomy worse than 
 Wilkes's. His own manner, as has been observed, was also 
 wretched. One morning when he was grinning and pleading a 
 cause, I stood by and observed, * Whom is Cullen taking off ? 
 He is taking off the devil.' " 
 
 " Sinclair, of Briggend, a Caithness laird, was telling that a 
 gentleman with whom he had played at loo had a way of 
 keeping Pam in the head of his boot, and bringing him out when 
 he found him necessary. ' Ay,' said Andrew Erskine, ' it seems 
 he played booty with you.' " I was present. 
 
 " I was defending one day poor Mrs. C at the time when 
 
 her husband was suing her for a divorce, and saying that she 
 
 * The Rev. John Pettigrew, A.M., was minister of Govan, 
 Lanarkshire, from 1688 to 1712 ; he died in March, 1715, in his 
 seventy-eighth year. He was remarkably facetious ; a number of his 
 witty sayings have been preserved. (Dr. Scott's " Fasti,^' vol. ii., 
 p. 69.) 
 
 + The Rev. William Love, A.M., ministered at Cathcart, Renfrew- 
 shire, from 1710 to 1738, when he died at the age of fifty-seven. 
 He made a monetary bequest to the poor of Paisley. (Dr. Scott's 
 "Fasti;' vol. ii., p. 61.) 
 
 J A portrait of Cullen in " Kay's Portraits " (vol. ii., p. 331) does not 
 warrant Boswell's assertion as to his extreme ugliness. He was plain - 
 looking, as was his father before him, but his aspect was not repulsive.
 
 252 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 was no worse than the Miss V s, for all her faults were only 
 
 innocent improprieties. ' No worse ! ' said Andrew Erskine, 
 ' she is ten times better; she only intrigued with certain people, 
 
 but the I\Iiss V s did it with everybody that was near her, 
 
 and would have done it with everybody at a distance had it been 
 possible.' " 
 
 " CuUen, the mimick, as has been more than once observed, had 
 a wretched manner of his own. I was one day to walk out with 
 him to dine at Craig House with j\Ir. Lockhart,* the Dean of 
 Faculty. I was saying to a lady that I wondered what 
 characters he would give me by the road. ' Oh,' said she, ' no 
 matter, providing you have not himself. As Sir John Falstaff 
 said to the hostess, when she offered the fat knight a hog's 
 countenance, " Any countenance but thy own." ' " 
 
 "John Home showed the Lord Chief Baron Orde a pair of 
 pumps he had on, and desired his lordship to observe how well 
 they were made, telling him at the same time that they had 
 been made for Lord Bute,-}- but were rather too little for him, 
 so his lordship had made John a present of them. ' I think, 
 said the Lord Chief Baron, 'you have taken the measure of Lord 
 Bute's foot.' " Lord Chief Baron Orde. | 
 
 * Son of George Lockhart, of Carnwath, and Lady Euphemia 
 Montgomery, daughter of the Earl of Eglinton, Alexander Lockhart 
 passed advocate in 1722. He distinguished himself in defending the 
 imfortmiate persons who were taken at Carlisle and subjected to trial 
 for taking part in the rebellion of 1745. Elected Dean of Faculty in 
 1764, he was raised to the bench in 1775 by the title of Lord Cov- 
 ington. He died lOth N'ovember, 1782, aged eighty -two. 
 
 f John, thu-d Earl of Bute, the favourite minister of George IIL, 
 a munificent patron of literature, and himself an accomplished 
 scholar and man of science. Lord Bute died 10th March, 1792. 
 
 J In his " Scottish Tour" Bos well thus refers to the Lord Chief 
 Baron Orde : — " This respectably English judge will be long remem- 
 bered in Scotland, where he built an elegant house and lived in it 
 magnificently. His own ample fortune, with tlie addition of his
 
 BOSWELLIANA, 253 
 
 "A very awkward fellow was dancing at the Edinhurgh 
 Assembly. Matthew Henderson* said, 'lie looks like a pro- 
 fessor of dislocation.' " 
 
 Hon. Alex. Goedon, [See note, i->. 254].t 
 
 salary enabled liim to be splendidly hospitable. . . . Lord Cliief 
 Baron Orde was on good terms with ns all, in a narrow country, filled 
 with jarring interests and keen parties. 
 
 * A native of Ayrshire, Matthew Henderson long resided in Edin- 
 burgh, where his society was much cherished. Allan Cunningham 
 relates on the authority of Sir Thomas Wallace, who knew him per- 
 sonally, "that he dined regularly at Fortune's Tavern, and was a 
 member of the Capillaire Club, which was composed of all who 
 inclined to be witty and joyous." When Eobert Burns visited 
 Edinburgh in 1787, Matthew Henderson was one of his chief asso- 
 ciates; he subscribed for four copies of the second edition of his 
 poems, and by his pleasing and beneficent manner gained a deep place 
 in his affections. Henderson died in the summer of 1790, and his 
 memory Avas celebrated by the Ayrshire bard in an elegiac poem, of 
 which the following stanzas are familiar : — 
 
 " Henderson ! the man — the brother ! 
 And art thou gone, and gone for ever ? 
 And hast thou crossed that unknown river, 
 
 Life's dreary bound 1 
 Like thee where shall I find another 
 
 The world around 1 
 " Go to your sculptured tombs, ye great, 
 In a' the tinsel trash o' state ! 
 But by thy honest tiu-f I'll wait, 
 
 Thou man o' worth ! 
 And weep the ae best fellow's fate 
 
 E'er lay in earth." 
 
 In transmitting the poem to :Mr. McMurdo, Burns writes from 
 Ellisland, 2nd August, 1790, "You knew Henderson? I have not 
 flattered his memory." In a tract by the Lord Chief Commissioner 
 Adam, entitled " Two Short Essays on the Study of History— the gift
 
 254 BOSWELLIANA., 
 
 " A man who uses a great many words to express his meaning 
 shows that he has no distinct idea, no neatness of speech. He 
 is like a bad marksman, who, instead of aiming a single stone 
 at an object, takes up a handful of stones, gravel, sand, and all, 
 and throws at it, thinking that in that manner he may hit it." 
 
 " It sometimes happens that when a man throws out a reflec- 
 tion against one, he, without intending it, pays a compliment. 
 In such a case, I think I am well entitled to take the compli- 
 ment. If a man throws a snowball at me, and I find a diamond 
 in the heart of it, surely the diamond is mine." 
 
 " One day when a company of us were dining at Mr. Foote's, 
 in Edinburgh, and I believe I was the only man present who 
 had any faith at aU in spirits, many jokes flew around my head ; 
 but I stood my ground, and went so far as to say that I did not 
 disbelieve the existence of witches. Matthew Henderson, who 
 is very happy in uncommon wild sallies, cried out, 'Johnson 
 inoculates him by moonlight.' " 
 
 of a grandfather," and printed at the Blair-Adam press in 1836, the 
 author concludes a list of eminent Scotsmen, his contemporaries, 
 with the following note : — " Besides these here enumerated, there were 
 many others who made a respectable figure in the society of Edinburgh 
 during the period here referred to (between 1750 and 1766), and there 
 were some who stand more prominently forward, whose rank, whose 
 wit, and whose taste and talent for conversation adorned the society 
 when they joined it, such as Thomas, Earl of Kelly; Thomas, Earl of 
 Haddington ; Nisbet, of Dirleton ; Matthew Henderson, at a future 
 period distinguished by Burns ; Sir Eobert Murray, of Hdlhead ; 
 George Brown, of Elliestoun, and others." 
 
 t The Hon. Alexander Gordon was third son of William, second 
 Earl of Aberdeen. Born iu 1739, he was admitted advocate in his 
 twenty -first year. In 1764 he was appointed Steward Depute of 
 Kirkcudbright, and in 1788 was raised to the bench as Lord Eockville, 
 He died 13th March, 1792. He was much esteemed for his lurbanity.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 255 
 
 "In talking of Dr. Armstrong's* excessive indolence to 
 Andrew Erskine I used this strong figure, he is sometimes so 
 that his soul cannot turn itself in its bed." 
 
 " Allan Eamsay f painted a portrait of David Hume, dressed 
 in scarlet with rich gold lace. ' George III.,' said he, ' thought 
 the picture very like, but thought the dress rather too fine. I 
 wished,' said Eamsay, ' posterity should see that one philosopher 
 during your Majesty's reign had a good coat upon his back.' " 
 
 " Lord President Arniston J was a man of uncommon fire, but 
 at the same time of a sound strong judgement. When he was at 
 
 * John Armstrong, M.D., physician and poet, was son of the 
 minister of Castleton, Eoxburghshire. Having studied medicine at the 
 University of Edinburgh, he became physician in 1732, and commenced 
 practice in the metropoUs. His *' Art of Preserving Health," an 
 ingenious poem, appeared in 1744. He was appointed physician to a 
 military hospital in London, and afterwards to the army in Germany. 
 He subsequently resumed medical practice in the metropolis. He 
 became notorious for his mdolence ; spending his time lounging in a 
 colfee-house, where he received his letters. He died on the 7th Sep- 
 tember, 1779, about his seventieth year. 
 
 f Son of the poet of the same name, Allan Eamsay the painter was 
 born at Edinburgh in 1713. Having studied his art in Italy, he 
 became portrait-painter first at Edinburgh and afterwards in London. 
 Introduced by the Earl of Bute to George III., he was appointed 
 principal painter to the king. He was an associate of Dr. Johnson, 
 Avho thus spoke of him : — " I love Eamsay. You will not find a man 
 in whose conversation there is more instruction, more information, and 
 more elegance than in Eamsay's." He died on the 10th August, 
 
 1784. 
 
 X Eobert Dundas, of Arniston, was born 9th December, 1685, and 
 admitted advocate in July, 1709. He was appointed SoHcitor-General 
 in 1717, and soon afterwards Lord Advocate. In 1721 he was 
 chosen Dean of Faculty. In 1722 he was elected M.P. for the 
 county of Edinburgh. He was raised to the bench in 1737, and in 
 1748 succeeded Duncan Forbes, of Culloden, as Lord President. An
 
 256 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 the' Bar, and his fancy sometimes ran away with him, Lord 
 Cullen said he was a wise man upon a mad horse." 
 
 Lord Auciiinleck. 
 
 " The first Earl of Stair * was a Captain of Dragoons, and when 
 there was a comparative trial for an election to a regency, as it 
 was called, or a professorship of the College of Glasgow, Mr. 
 Dalrymple, afterwards known as Lord Stair, appeared in his 
 jack-boots as a candidate, and carried the election. When he 
 was afterwards pleading as a lawyer in the Court of Session, 
 some ignorant fellow who was his opponent committed some 
 gross blunders in the Latin which he quoted. ' Pray,' said Stair, 
 'don't break Priscian's head!" 'Sir,' said the fellow, *I was 
 not bred a schoolmaster.' ' No,' replied Stair, ' nor a scholar 
 either.' " Loed Auchinleck. 
 
 " Lord Forglen was a most curious mixture of a character. 
 Lord Newhall, who was a grave austere judge, told my father, 
 ' Forglen is a man of a desultory mind. I was once walking 
 with him on that fine walk upon the river-side at Forglen, when 
 all at once he says, " Now, my lord, this is a fine walk. If ye 
 
 ingenious pleader and powerful reasoner, he was also distinguished 
 for his sound judgment and inflexible integrity. He died on the 
 26th August, 1753. 
 
 * Sh John Dalrymple, first Earl of Stair, son of Lord President 
 Stair, was born about 1648, and passed advocate in 1672. With his 
 father he experienced much persecution under the rule of the House 
 of Stewart ; he afterwards made his peace at court, and m 1687 was 
 appointed Lord Advocate. In 1688 he was raised to the bench as 
 Lord Justice Clerk. He became Lord Advocate, and one of the 
 principal Secretaries of State. His connection with the massacre 
 of Glencoe brought him into odium, and compelled him to seek 
 temporary retirement . In 1703 he was created Earl of Stair. He 
 was a chief promoter of the Treaty of Union. He died on the 8th 
 January, 1707.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 257 
 
 want to pray to God, can there be a better place ? and if ye 
 want to kiss a bonny lass, can there be a better place ? " '" 
 
 Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " In the southern countries the warmth of the sunny climate 
 makes the people of a due warmth without drinking, but in 
 northern countries men's hearts are as hard as cold iron till 
 heated by wine. In warm countries they are like the softer 
 metals naturally ; but with us there is no making any impression 
 on the heart till it is heated by the fire of strong liquor. I 
 look upon every jovial company among us as a forge of friend- 
 ship." 
 
 "A collection of honmots or lively sallies which have 
 appeared in law papers before the Court of Session, without 
 being expunged, would be like the pictures preserved in Hercu- 
 laneum, or like mirrors saved out of the ruins after the earth- 
 quake of Lisbon." 
 
 "One of the gownkeepers to the Lords of Session had a 
 wonderful share of natural humour. He was much given to 
 drinking. One day the first Sir Gilbert EUiot, Lord Minto * who 
 from the political fury of the times had, when passing his trials 
 as an advocate, been unjustly remitted to his studies, and Lord 
 Anstruther,-}- another of the judges, who was noted for his 
 
 * Sir Gilbert Elliot originally practised as a writer in Edinburgh, 
 and was a vigorous supporter of the Presbyterian Church. From his 
 adhering to the Marquess of Argyll he was found guilty of treason, 
 and forfeited. Obtaining a remission of his sentence, he applied to 
 be taken on trials as advocate, but was, on his first examination, re- 
 jected. He was admitted in ISTovember, 1688, and soon attained 
 important practice. In 1700 he was created a baronet, and in 1705 
 was raised to the bench. He died 1st May, 1718. 
 
 t Sir William Anstruther, Bart., was M.P. for Fifeshire during the 
 administration of the Duke of York in 1681, and stoutly opposed 
 the measures of the Court. In 1689 he was appointed an ordinary 
 Lord of Session; he afterwards obtained other offices and honours. 
 He died 2 4th January, 1711. 
 
 S
 
 258 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 ignorance, would needs amuse themselves with wagering so 
 much beer that he could not walk along a certain deal in the 
 floor of the parliament-house without going off it. The gown- 
 keeper began ; but being a good deal muddy with tippling, he 
 soon staggered off the right line. ' You've lost,' cried Minto. 
 ' At leisure, my Lord,' said he, ' I'll begin again. Your lordship was 
 remitted to your studies ; may not I be so too ? ' Anstrutlier 
 gave a good laugh. The gownkeeper turned to him, — 'True, 
 my lord, he was remitted to his studies ; but it was not for 
 ignorance.'" Lord Auciiinleck. 
 
 " The same gownkeeper at the time when the Court of Session 
 used to sit in the afternoon was carrying in a couple of candles. 
 Mr. William Carmichael, advocate, who was remarkably hump- 
 backed, and, like all deformed people, loved a little mischief, 
 stretched out his legs as the gownkeeper passed, which made him 
 come down with a vengeance. The Lord President flew into a 
 great passion, calling out, 'You drunken beast! this is insuffer- 
 able.' The gownkeeper gathering himself up, addressed his 
 lordship slily : ' An't please your lordship, I am not drunk ; but 
 the truth is, as I was brinojinor in the candles I fell ow'r Mr. 
 William Carmichael's back.' (This fair hit put the whole court 
 in good humour.)" Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " Wedderburn was a little while in opposition, and then joined 
 the court. It was said by a patriot writer, he just kissed the 
 cause like Judas in order to betray it." A newspaper. 
 
 " In the debate in Parliament about Falkland Island, Mr. 
 Burke said, ' Our ministry's excusing themselves on account of 
 its smallness puts me in mind of an unlucky country girl, who 
 acknowledged that she had indeed a bastard child — but it was a 
 very little one.' " Newspapers. 
 
 " Wilkes was the ugliest fellow that ever lived, and a most
 
 BOSM^ELLIANA. 259 
 
 notorious infidel, Boswell said he was partial as to one article, 
 for he had too much interest to deny the resurrection of the 
 body." 
 
 "Wilkes was one evening in company with some French 
 esprits forts wlio were every one atheist, Wilkes opposed them 
 with great spirit, and then said, ' Now in England Mr. Wilkes is 
 looked upon as the most abandoned and impious fellow alive ; 
 and here am I defending the being of a God against you all.' " 
 
 From himself. 
 
 " Wilkes was one day talking of the resurrection of the body. 
 ' For my own share,' said he, ' I would no more value being 
 raised with the same body than being raised in the same coat, 
 waistcoat, and breeches.' " I was present. 
 
 " Mr. John McLaren,* minister of the Tolbooth Church, 
 Edinburgh, was a man of uncommon natural genius. My father 
 wrote the heads of his sermons for many years. His last prayer 
 was pretty much a form, and was full of strong expressions and 
 lively figures : ' Lord, bless Thy churches abroad in Hungary, 
 Bohemia, Lithuania, Poland ; ' and ' Lord, pity Thy poor servants 
 in France. Thou had once glorious churches there ; but now 
 they are like dead men out o' mind.' And speaking of hastening 
 the restoration of the Jews, and in-bringing the Gentiles as a 
 sort of joyful consummation, ' Lord, shule [shovel] awa time.' 
 As he did not like the Union, ' Pity poor Scotland. Our rowers 
 have brought us into deep waters [a Scripture phrase], may we 
 have a peur [pure] ministry and peur ordinances, and let the 
 
 * The Eev, John M'Claren was, in 1690, doctor in the Grammar 
 School, Glasgow. He was in 1692 ordained minister of Kippen, and 
 was translated to Carstairs in 1699. In 1711 he was preferred to the 
 Tolhooth Church, Edinburgh. He declined the oath of abjuration in 
 1712, and was one of six who protested against the Seceders being 
 loosed from their parochial charges, November, 1733. As a preacher 
 he was most acceptable, delighting his hearers by his fertile and 
 striking illustrations. He died 11th July, 1734,
 
 260 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 bcane o' Scotland never be a little-worth, lax, frothy ministry, that 
 ken little o' God, less o' Christ, and are full of themselves.' " 
 
 Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " When John, Duke of Argyle, came down to Scotland in all 
 his power, tlie Presbytery of Edinburgh were to wait upon him. 
 The young fashionable brethren regretted much that Mr. 
 McLaren was moderator, as they did not think he would 
 make a proper elegant speech. However, Mr. McLaren addressed 
 the duke thus : — ' My Lord Deuch (Duke), I am not used to make 
 speeches to men like your Grace. All I shall say is your Grace 
 has come of great and good men. Your Grace excels them all 
 in greatness. I pray God you may excel them all in goodness.' 
 The duke, who had a high value for his ancestors, was greatly 
 pleased with this speech. He said it was the genteelest 
 compliment he had ever heard, and most suitable from a 
 clergyman." 
 
 Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " When there was a thanksgiving day kept at Edinburgh for a 
 victory by the Whig army over the Jacobites in the year 
 1715, Betty Frank, daughter to Mr. George Frank, advocate, 
 Matthew Brown the clerk's second wife, a great Jacobite, 
 was passing by the Talbooth Kirk in the time of publick worship, 
 and she dropped a halfpenny into the plate, wrapped in paper 
 with this inscription, — 
 
 ' Stop, good preacher ; go no further ! 
 God receives no thanks for murther.' " 
 
 Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " It was formerly the custom for the magistrates of Edin- 
 burgh on the king's birthday to get upon the Cross, which was 
 hung with carpets and busked (drest) with flowers for the occa- 
 sion, and before all the citizens to drink the health of the day, 
 &c. The glasses used to be filled before they arrived. One day 
 it was a very heavy rain, so that as the glasses overflowed there
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 261 
 
 was at last hardly the colour of wine in them. On this occa- 
 sion the same Mr. Brown wrote these lines : — 
 
 *At Cana once heaven's Lord was pleased 
 
 Amongst blithe bridle folks to dine, 
 And for to countenance their mirth 
 He turned their water into wine. 
 
 • But when for joy of Brunswick's birth 
 Our tribunes mounted the theatre, 
 Heaven would not countenance their mirtli, 
 But turned their claret into water.' " 
 
 Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 "The bonnie Earl of Moray,* he might ha' been a queen, 
 used to be ludicrously said of the late James, Earl of Moray. 
 He might ha' been a queen was, however, a serious compli- 
 ment to express handsomeness in Eegent Moray's time, of whom 
 it was said, ' The noble earl,' &c., and even of late date it was a 
 serious expression in Scotland. My father told me that Taylour, 
 the hill minister, speaking to him of Johnston of Wamphray, 
 who was a very handsome man, said gravely, ' Efe might ha' 
 been a queen.' " 
 
 * An ancient Scottish ballad, entitled " The Bonnie Earl of Murray," 
 is founded on the murder of James Stewart, Earl of Murray, son-in- 
 law and successor of the celebrated regent. He was slain at his own 
 residence at Donibristle, Fifeshirc, on the 9th February, 1592, by 
 the hereditary enemy of his house, George, sixth Earl of Huntly. 
 According to the story, the Earl of Murray, who was young and 
 extremely handsome, attracted the admiration of Queen Anne of 
 Denmark, who in the king's hearing described hun as " a proper and 
 gallant man." This emphatic commendation offended the kuig, Avho 
 requested the Earl of Huntly to bring him into his presence. 
 Himtly forthwith set fire to Donibristle Castle, and the earl in at- 
 tempting to escape was slain. Lord Huntly was thrown into prison, 
 but being released at the king's command Avas created a marquess. 
 According to Boswell, James, seventh Earl of Moray, who died in 
 1767 was also styled "The Bonnie Earl."
 
 262 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " Mcllvaine of Griimet (pronounced Grimmet), in Carrick, was 
 a very great original. My father knew him well. He was a 
 tall stately man, quite erect, with a long sword at right angles 
 with his body, so that when he was going in or out at a door he 
 stuck. All the old anti-revolutioners, of which number he was 
 in a very zealous degree, were much in his style. He was 
 offered a troop of horse at the Revolution, but refused it, as his 
 conscience would not allow him to take the oaths to a new 
 government. He had something of the old Spanish rhodomon- 
 tade, and a great deal of curious humour. He wrote to Mr. 
 Charles Cochrane, with a present of solan geese, thus, — ' Worthy 
 peer, I send you four solan geese to defeat the quadruple alli- 
 ance, and all alliances, leagues, and covenants that have been 
 made repugnant to religion, honour, and honesty. What we 
 cannot do by works let faith supply, being fortified with the 
 juice of the generous grape, which makes a little pitiful fellow 
 as great as any accidental forte monarch.' " Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " Grimmet lived just on the coast of Carrick, and had a little 
 boat which he used to send out, and so had always plenty of 
 fish. Once when my Lord Catlicart ♦ had a great deal of 
 company with him, he sent to Griramet for some fish. Grimmet 
 sent him some with the following letter : — ' I have sent your 
 lordship some fish, but am sorry I could not get more. The 
 truth is, we have of late been infested with a fish called the dog- 
 fish, from the German Ocean, which consumes our fish by sea 
 as much as some people from that country ^o consume our 
 substance by land.' " 
 
 " Bardarrock t was one evening drinking with a company of 
 gentlemen. When it came to his toast he gave Miss De Hood. 
 ' Miss De Hood,' said they, ' we never heard of her.' ' Neither,' 
 said he, 'did 1 ever hear of ony o' yours.' " 
 
 Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 * Charles, eighth Lord Cathcart. 
 
 f Mr. Eichmond of Bardarrock, an Ayrshire landowner in the 
 vicinity of Auchinleck, remarkable for his humorous sallies.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 263 
 
 "David Hume used to say that he did not find it an 
 irksome task to him to go through a great many dull books 
 when writing his history. 'I then read,' said he, 'not for 
 pleasure, but in order to find out facts.' He compared it to a 
 sportsman seeking hares, who does not mind what sort of ground 
 it is that he goes over farther than as he may find hares in it." 
 
 From himself. 
 
 "As it was said that French cooks will make admirable 
 dishes of things which others throw away as useless, so the 
 French in general can cook up a ragout of vanity from the most 
 trivial circumstances ; nay, from ciixumstances which naturally 
 ought to humble them. Instance the soldier running before 
 the King of Prussia, who said, ' Ma fois, c'est un brave homme, 
 ce Eoi de Prusse. Je crois qu'il a servi en France.' And the 
 Chevalier de Malte, who told me that if Lord George Sackville* 
 had advanced at Minden, the French army would have turned, 
 'et il aurroit ete le plus illustre jour que la France jamais 
 ont.'" 
 
 " Mr. William Auld, f the minister of Mauchline, took his 
 Sunday's supper with me one night when I lived in the 
 Canongate. He had provided himself with a large new wig, 
 
 * Lord George Sackville, third sou of the first Duke of Dorset, 
 'entered the army in 1737, and served at Dettingen, Fo ntenoy, and 
 Culloden. In 1759 he was present at the battle of Minden, serving 
 as lieutenant-general under Prince Ferdinand. Accused of disobey- 
 ing orders, he was tried by court-martial, and being found guilty, 
 was dismissed from the army. George II. caused his name to be 
 removed from the roll of Privy Councillors. During the reign of 
 George III. his good fortune was restored. As Secretary of State for 
 the colonies under Lord I^orth, he conducted the American War. In 
 1782 he was created Viscoiwit Sackville. He died in 1784, aged 
 sixty-nine. Some have ascribed to him the Letters of Junius. 
 
 t The Eev. WilHam Auld, designated Daddij Auld by the poet 
 Burns, was ordained minister of Mauchline, Ayrshire, in 1742, and 
 died 12th December, 1791, m his eighty-third year. He was a 
 pious exemplary clergyman.
 
 264 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 with the greatest number of curls in it that I ahnost ever saw. 
 As he walked up the street in his way home some drunken 
 fellows passed him, and his wig having attracted their attention, 
 one of them called out, ' There's a wig like the hundred and 
 nineteenth Psalm,' — a droll comparison of the number of curls 
 in the wig to the number of verses in the psalm, very apropos 
 (apposite) to a minister." 
 
 Mr. Brown, my clerk, who was present. 
 
 "Mr. Charles Cochrane liked to have a number of curious 
 mortals about him at Ochiltree. Eichmond of Bardarrock was 
 one of them, but had more education and genius than most of 
 them. One day they made a kind of butt of Bardarrock, and 
 were all laughing at him, upon which he very gravely said, 
 ' It's a changed world now ; the lairds of this place were wont 
 to keep hawks, but this laird has an unco' taste, — he keeps 
 gowks.'" Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " Lord Forglen was a great original. Every Sunday evening 
 he had with him his niece Betty Kinloch,* afterwards Lady 
 Milton, Charles Forbes, who went out in the 1715, and David 
 Keid, his clerk. He had what he called the exercise, which was 
 singing a psalm and reading a chapter ; and his form was this, — 
 ' Betsy, ye hae a sweet voice ; lift ye the psalm ; — Charles, ye 
 hae a strong voice, read ye the chapter ; — and, David, fire ye the 
 plate.' This was burnt brandy for them. Accordingly all went 
 on, and whenever the brandy was enough, David blew out the 
 flame, which was a signal ; the exercise stopped, and they took 
 their pint." Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 "When Lord Forglen was dying my grandfather went and 
 visited him, and found him quite cheerful. ' Come awa, Mr. 
 Boswell,' said he, ' and learn to dee (die), man. I'm ga'n awa to 
 
 * Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis Kinloch, of Gilmerton, 
 married Andi-cw Fletcher, a judge in the Court of Session by the title 
 of Lord Milton.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 2G5 
 
 see your old friend Culleii* and mine. He was a glide honest 
 man ! but his walk and yours was nae very steady when you 
 used to come infrae Maggy Johnston's t upo' the Saturday after- 
 noons.' " LOKD AUCIIINLECK. 
 
 " Old Dr. Clark told my father that he came in to see Lord 
 Forglen when he was dying. ' Weel, Doctor ' said he, 'what news ? ' 
 ' I cauna say I hear any,' said the Doctor. ' Dear man,' said he, 
 ' wha do they say's to succeed me ? ' ' It's time enough,' said 
 the Doctor, 'to speak o' that, my lord, when ye're dead.' ' Hoot, 
 daft body,' said Forglen, ' will ye teil us ? ' Upon which the 
 Doctor mentioned such a man. ' What's his interest ? ' ' So-and- 
 so.' ' Poll, that 'ill no do. Wha else ? ' 'Sic a man.' ' What's 
 his interest ? ' ' So-and-so.' ' Poh, that 'ill no do either.' Then 
 the Doctor mentioned a third man and his interest. ' I'U lay 
 my siller on his head against the field.' " Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 " Old Dr. Clark told my father the day Lord Forglen died he 
 called at his door, and was met by David Eeid, his clerk. ' How 
 does my lord do ? ' 'I hope he's week' So the Doctor knew he 
 was dead. David conducted him into a room, and when he 
 looked beneath the table there was (sic) two dozen of wine. In a 
 little in came the rest of the Doctors. So they all sat down, and 
 David gave them some of my lord's last words, at the same 
 time putting the bottels (sic) about very busily. After they had 
 taken a glass or two they arose to go away. ' No, gentlemen,' 
 said David, * not so ; it was the express will o' the dead that I 
 should fill you a' fou, and I maun fulfil the will o' the dead.' 
 AU the time the tears were running down his cheeks. ' And 
 indeed,' said the Doctor, ' he did fulfil it, for there was na ane 
 o' us able to bite his ain thumb.' " Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 * Sir Francis Grant, Bart., passed advocate in 1691, and was 
 raised to the bench as Lord Cullen in 1709. A zealous loyalist and 
 profound lawyer, he was, according to Wodrow, a man of exemplary 
 piety. He died on the 26th ]\Iarch, 1726. Sir Alexander Ogilvy, 
 Lord Forglen, died 30th March, 1727. 
 
 t A respectable tavern-keeper near Edinburgh.
 
 2G6 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 « * was a very religious young woman. She re- 
 fused Mr. James Dundas.f of Arniston, because he was a rake. 
 Some years afterwards she married Mr. Alexander Leslie,:J: 
 brother to the Earl of Leven, who at length was Earl of Leven 
 himself, but had very little when she married him. Upon which 
 Monypenny, of Pitmilly, wrote these lines : — 
 
 ' Celia, who cast her eyes to heaven, 
 
 Now turns them back and looks to Leven ; 
 
 Her former coyness she repents, 
 
 And thinks of men of lower rents, 
 
 "Which makes it true what old folks says — 
 
 There's difference of market days.' 
 
 Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 It is curious that Pitmilly's § sister was second wife to Mr. 
 Leslie after he came to be earl. 
 
 " The old laird of Blair |1 was a man of singular humour. 
 He and the laird of Baidlin were once visiting at Eglintoune. 
 When they were coming away, Blair says, ' Baidlin, we have 
 been very kindly entertained in this house. I think we'll leave a 
 crown, the price o' drink-money.' ' I think so too,' said Baidlin. 
 Blair contrived to let Baidlin go before him, who gave his crown. 
 In a little after Blair came down, and he says to the butler, 
 
 * The heroine of this anecdote, whose name Boswell omits, was his 
 relative, Mary Erskine, daughter of Colonel Erskine of Carnock, 
 and aunt of the celebrated Dr. John Erskine of Greyfriars Church, 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 t Brother of Robert -Dundas of Arniston, Lord President of the 
 Court of Session. 
 
 J Alexander Leslie, second son of David, third Earl of Leven, 
 was admitted advocate in 1719. He succeeded his nephew as lifth 
 Earl of Leven in 1729, and was appointed a judge in 1734. From 
 17-41 to 1753 he held office as Lord High Commissioner to the 
 General Assembly. He died in 1754. 
 
 § The second wife of Alexander Leslie, fifth Earl of Leven, was 
 Elizabeth, daughter of David Monypenny, of Pitmilly, Fifeshire. 
 II Bryce Blair, of Blair, died 4th February, ] 639.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 267 
 
 ' Heark'ye ! did Baidlin gie you the crown I gied him to gie 
 you ? ' * Yes, an't please your honour/ said the butler, and bowed 
 to the ground; so that Blair got all the honour. He was a man, 
 however, who used to brag of his tricks, so Baidlin got notice 
 of this, and was determined- to be evens with him. The next 
 time he was at Blair the laird had got a kind of threatening 
 letter from Mr. William Blair,* one of the regents of the 
 College of Glasgow, craving him for the annual rent of £500 
 which the laird of Blair owed him, and a letter of apology from 
 Blair, with entreaties of delay, was lying open on the table. 
 Mr. William Blair was married to a daughter of Orbistoun's,-f* 
 with whom he got a good deal of money, and both he and she 
 squinted a good deal. When the laird went out of the room 
 Baidlin wrote a postscript to the letter, — 
 
 * Glee'd Will Blair has gotten a wife, 
 And Orbistoun defraud it ; 
 Their eyes are in contiuual strife, 
 Similis simili gaudet.' 
 
 " The laird without looking into his letter again seals it and 
 sends it off; upon receiving it, Mr. William Blair was in a most 
 horrid rage, and immediately sent him a charge of horning. 
 The laird got upon his horse, came to Mr. William, and begged 
 to know why he used him so severely. ' Used ! ' said he, ' after 
 writing to me in that impertinent manner ! ' The laird desired 
 to see what he had written ; and on being shown the postscript, 
 * Oh,' said he, ' that has been Baidlin.' " Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 "I have often remarked how strongly people's faults are 
 
 * The Eev. Wniiam Blair was son of John Blair, burgess of Irvine, 
 and great-grandson of Blair of that ilk ; his youngest brother was 
 the celebrated Robert Blair, minister of St. Andrews. Born in 1586, 
 he became a regent in the University of Glasgow, and in 1620 was 
 ordained minister of Dumbarton, He died in December, 1632, be- 
 queathing a house for a residence to his successors. 
 
 f Mr. Blair's wife was Barbara Eobertson, probably of the family 
 of Orbiston.
 
 268 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 painted when once we are exasperated against tliem. The 
 faults of indifferent people are, as it were, written in invisible 
 ink; we scarcely perceive them, and only know where they 
 exist. But the moment our resentment is kindled against these 
 same people their faults appear black like the characters written 
 in invisible ink when held to the lire." • 
 
 " Pope told Lord Marchmont of his intention to have War- 
 burton * write notes upon his works. ' Well said, my lord ; it 
 will be a very good trial of the strength of your genius to see 
 how much nonsense you can carry down to posterity when you 
 have Warburton on your back.' " 
 
 David Hume, Esq., who had it from Lokd Maechmont. 
 
 " Warburton was a prodigious flatterer of Lord Mansfield, and 
 consequently a favourite. David Hume was one day speaking 
 violently against him to his lordship, who said, ' Upon my word, 
 Mr. Hume, he is quite a different man in conversation from 
 what he is in his books.' ' Then, my Lord,' said Hume, ' he 
 must be the most agreeable man in the world.' " 
 
 Mk. David Hume. 
 
 " David Hume was one day observing to me tliat he coidd not 
 conceive what satisfaction envious people could have by saying 
 that a work of genius such as the ' Gentle Shepherd ' was not 
 written by its reputed author, but by some other person, as one 
 shoidd imagine that they must be equally hurt by one person's 
 being admired as by another. I accounted for it in this way : 
 that by ascribing it to another person than its reputed author, 
 they raise doubts whether the praise is due to the one or the 
 other, and so the admiration, instead of being fixed to one, is 
 
 * Bishop Warburton, author of " The Divine Legation of Moses," 
 published in 1739 a series of letters in defence of Pope's " Essay on 
 Man," against Mons. de Crousaz, who had accused the poet of favour- 
 ing the doctrines of Spinoza. These letters led to a close intimacy 
 between the poet and his vindicator. Bishop Warburton died at 
 Gloucester on the 7th June, 1779.
 
 BOSWELLIANA, 269 
 
 kept in equilibrio, like Mahomet's coffin between the two load- 
 stones." 
 
 " The celebrated Mr, Banks * before he set sail on his first 
 expedition was in love with a Miss Blosset ; when he returned he 
 found himself so enthusiastically fond of roving in search of 
 unknown regions, that he could not think of matrimony. At the 
 same time he had shown such an attachment to the lady that it 
 was matter of great doubt in the world of private news whether he 
 would think himself bound in honour to marry her. General 
 Paoli asked Mr. Richard Owen Cambridge, ' Pray, do you thinlc 
 Mr. Banks will marry Miss Blosset ? ' 'Oh no, sir," said Mr. 
 Cambridge, ' his thoughts are all beyond Cape Horn.' " 
 
 General Paoli. 
 
 "Dempster said that CuUen the mimick was to men's characters 
 like wax to intaglios — to seals cut inwards : That men had 
 particularities, but that we did not perceive them till the im- 
 pressions of them were shown, reversed, bold, and prominent (or 
 words to that purpose), by CuUen's mimickry." I was present. 
 
 " In the spring, 1772, Dempster gave me the following lively 
 representation of Sir William Meredith.t ' He is no longer with 
 us,' said he, ' nor has he yet joined the ministry. He is like a 
 wart round which there is a string tied. All circulation is 
 stopped between him and us ; and he is ready to be cut off 
 whenever the ministry please.' " 
 
 " I was one of Mr. Eoss + the player's counsel as a friend. 
 His spouse, the celebrated Fanny Murray, made me a present of 
 some very pretty straw mats for setting dishes on. Lord 
 Auchinleck observed to me, ' Well, James, she cannot say that 
 then she does not value your advice a sir cm. 
 
 "Mr. C. F. told a story in a company in a very confused 
 
 * Afterwards Sir Joseph Banks. 
 
 t Sir William Meredith, M.P., published a work entitled " His- 
 torical Eemarks on the Taxation of Free States." Loud., 1788, Svo. 
 + See siqyra, p. 17.
 
 270 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 manner, and then said he told it in confidence, and then begged 
 they would not repeat it. 'Pray,' said Dempster, ' do you think 
 any of us can repeat this story ' ? " 
 
 " A Jew having been brought before Lord Mansfield as Lord 
 Chief Justice of the King's Bench, applied to be admitted to 
 bail. He was dressed in very rich lace clothes. The counsel 
 against him disputed for a considerable time, alleging that the 
 bail which he offered was not good. My lord was tired and in 
 a hurry, and looking at the Jew's rich clothes, ' Why, sir,' said 
 he, ' he will burn for the money.' " "* 
 
 Councillor Vansittart, who was present. 
 
 " At the exhibition of the Eoyal Academy at London in 1772 
 there was a picture of Lord Clive renouncing Meer Jaffier's 
 legacy in favour of the East India Company, for the support of 
 invalids. Dempster did not perfectly believe the story of this 
 picture. He was dining at Sir George Colebrooke's,* and Lady 
 Colebrooke would needs expatiate upon this picture, and on the 
 subject of it. ' Madam,' said Dempster, ' I take it that affair 
 won't bear to be canvassed.' " Mr. Dempster. 
 
 "On Monday, the 2nd November, 1772, I dined at Fortune's 
 in company with Mr. Banks, Dr. Solander, -f* and several more 
 at an entertainment given by Mr. Hamilton, of Bangour, J when 
 the following good things passed : 
 
 * Sir George Colebrooke was chairman of the East India Company's 
 Court of Directors. He represented Arundel in three successive parlia- 
 ments. He married Mary, only daughter and heiress of Patrick 
 Gaynor, Esq., of Antigua. Sir George Colebrooke died 5th August, 
 1809. 
 
 ■f David Charles Solander, the eminent naturalist, was born in 
 Sweden in 173G. He was a companion of Sir Joseph Banks in 
 Captain Cook's first voyage. In 1771 he received the degree of 
 D.C.L. from the University of Oxford, and in 1773 became assistant 
 librarian in the British Museum. He died in 1782. 
 
 •J James Hamilton of Bangour, son of the poet, William Hamilton 
 of Bangour.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 271 
 
 "Lord Kelly* said of a Mr. Wright who was present, 'He 
 has been in several parts of the world, and I expect to see him 
 in Otaheite before he dies.' ' So then, my lord,' said David Hume, 
 Esq., ' you expect to be there yourself.' My lord, in order to 
 retort upon Hume for this catching at his word, set himself in a 
 steady posture, and said, ' My dear David, if you were to go 
 there you would be obliged to retract all your essays on miracles.' 
 
 * Oh no, my lord,' said Hume, ' everything there is in nature.' 
 ' Aye,' said the Earl, ' (but) there are different natures.' " 
 
 " Mr. Hamilton of Bangour's lady, was that morning delivered 
 of a son, who was not yet baptized. Lord Kelly proposed his 
 health; but addressing himself to Principal Eobertson, said, 
 
 * Doctor, this is not a safe toast for you, for he's not a Christian.' 
 
 * My lord,' said the Principal, ' there are good hopes.' Hume 
 laughed. Said the Earl, ' David, if there are hopes, I am afraid 
 it will be worse for you.' " 
 
 " Somebody observed that Lord Elibankf was constantly read- 
 ing Lucretius ; another asked, ' Has he given up Tacitus ? ' Said 
 Lord Kelly, ' It's long since he gave up Tacitus ; for he never can 
 hold his tongue a minute, and he has taken to Lucretius because 
 he feels himself grown so old that he would make but a poor 
 figure with Lucretia.' At saying this the earl laughed, as if in 
 scorn, and cried, ' Such nonsense ! ' " 
 
 * Thomas Alexander Erskine, sixth Earl of Kellie, was celebrated 
 as a musician. Addicted to convivial pleasures, he made sacrifice of 
 his genius, and expended in social humour talents which might have 
 brought him eminence in the literary or political world. He died at 
 Brussels, on the 9th October, 1781, aged forty-nine. 
 
 t Patrick Murray, fifth Lord Elibank, was an elegant and accom- 
 plished scholar. He studied law and passed advocate, but subse- 
 quently joined the army. In 1740 he accompanied Lord Cathcart in 
 the expedition to Carthagena. Latterly he established his residence 
 at Edinburgh. Dr. Johnson much enjoyed his society ; in a letter 
 addressed to his lordship he used these words : — '* I have often 
 declared that I never met you without going away a wiser man." 
 Lord Elibank employed much of his time in classical studies. He 
 died 3rd August, 1778, aged seventy-six.
 
 272 BOSWELLIAXA. 
 
 " Our frame and temper of mind depends much on the state 
 of our bodies. The human body is often called a machine, and 
 a wonderful machine it is. The blood is like quicksilver, the 
 veins like feathers, the nerves like springs. The soul sits iu 
 the machine. As one who in a chaise when driving hard cannot 
 hear or give attention, I have been conscious of the corporeal 
 machine running on with such rapidity that I felt to apply seri- 
 ously to anything was in vain for me while that continued." 
 
 "Mr. Crosbie,* the advocate, when he once took up an idea 
 retained it most obstinately, even after there was convincing 
 evidence against it. On occasion of the great cause between 
 Nabob Fullertonf and Orangefield.J where he and I were on 
 opposite sides, he persisted in thinking Fullarton in the right, 
 when every one else was clear against him. I said Crosbie's 
 head was like a Christmas-box with a slit in the top of it. If 
 once a thing has got into it, you cannot get it out again but by 
 breaking the box. ' We must break your head, Crosbie,' 
 said I." 
 
 " It's a good thing for Scotland that we can appeal to the 
 House of Lords. I look upon that court, the House of Lords, 
 as a great rolling stone, which by going over a cause effectually 
 smootlis it at once, when our fifteen lords, who have been 
 breaking the clods with their mallets for a long time, may have 
 left some parts rough ; or sometimes may have found large 
 masses which they have not been able to break at all. The 
 
 * Andrew Crosbio of Hohn, an eminent advocate, the original of 
 *' Councillor Pleydell " iu " Guy Mannering." He met Dr. Johnson 
 at Boswcll's residence in Edinburgh, and engaged with him in keen 
 debate. In his " Journey" Boswell has described him as "his truly 
 learned and i)liilosophical friend." Crosbie attained opulence in his 
 profession, but having made an unfortunate investment fell into 
 poverty. He died in 178.5. 
 
 •|- See sujjra, p. 74. 
 
 J Orangeiield, an estate iu the parish of Monkton, Ayrshire, now 
 belonging to A. Murdoch, Esq.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 273 
 
 rolling stone can never do harm. If the cause is smooth, it will 
 make it more firmly so ; if rough in whole or in part, will 
 smooth it." 
 
 '•' Banks and Solander were telling of a monstrous crater which 
 they had found in Iceland, which threw up prodigious quantities 
 of hot water to an amazing height. The story, I believe, was 
 true. But I had my joke on them as travellers ; I said they had 
 found a kettle to boil Pontopidan the Bishop of Berghen's won- 
 derful fish." 
 
 "I have observed that the Lords of Justiciary in Scotland, 
 though they proceed with strong common sense and in general 
 with material justice, yet have not studied criminal law as a 
 science, though it is a very extensive, important, and nice one. 
 Being lords of session, their attention is chiefly taken up with 
 civil affairs, and they take criminal matters only by the bye. 
 They are like barber-surgeons, who shave — and bleed — upon 
 occasions." 
 
 " There are a variety of little circumstances in life, which, like 
 pins in a lady's dress, are necessary for keeping it together, and 
 giving it neatness and elegance." 
 
 " A man of fame and acknowledged judgment as an author 
 giving his opinion to a bookseller in favour of a literary work, 
 the copy of which is offered for sale, when he does not sincerely 
 think as he says, is a piece of real dishonesty, quite different 
 from those commendations which a good-natured though not 
 strictly honest flattery bestows. It is like a goldsmith, to 
 whom suspicious metal is referred, certifying that it is gold 
 when he knows it to be brass or a bad mixture." 
 
 " Dr. Johnson had a very high opinion of Edmund Burke. 
 He said, ' That fellow calls forth all my powers ; ' and once, when 
 he was out of spirits and rather dejected, he said, ' Were I to see 
 Burke now 'twould kill me.' " Mk. Langton.* 
 
 * Mr. Bennet Langton, of Langton, in Lincolnshire, was an attached 
 friend of Dr. Johnson. Many sayings of Dr. Johnson, which he pre- 
 
 T
 
 274 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " Mr. Johnson used to laugh at a passage in Carte's ' Life * of 
 the Duke of Ormond,' where he gravely observes * that he was 
 always in full dress when he weD,t to court ; too many being in 
 the practice of going thither with double lapells.' " 
 
 Me. Langton. 
 
 " , who translated 'Ariosto,' had a dispute with Tom 
 
 WTiarton-f- as to some passages of it. knew the subject 
 
 perfectly, but could not express himself. Wharton knew it very 
 superficially, but wrote with ease and vivacity. Johnson said 
 ' the one had ball without powder, and the other powder without 
 baU.' " 
 
 "Johnson had a sovereign contempt for Wilkes and his 
 party, whom he looked upon as a mere rabble. ' Sir,' said he, 
 ' had Wilkes's mob prevailed against Government, this nation had 
 died oi ijhthiriasis.'' Mr. Langton told me this. The expression, 
 Morbus pediculosus, as being better known, would strike more. 
 Lousy disease may be put in a parenthesis." 
 
 " Mr. Hay Campbell % spoke with admirable good sense and 
 
 served, Boswell has included in his great work. Mr. Langton at first 
 sought employment as an engineer ; he was an eminent Greek scholar. 
 Possessed of an agreeable demeanour, he excelled in conversation. 
 He died on the lOth December, 1801, aged sixty-four. 
 
 * * History of the Life of James, Duke of Ormonde,' by Thomas 
 Carte. 3 vols., fol. 1735-6. 
 
 t Thomas, Marquess of Wharton, a vigorous supporter of William 
 of Orange, was on account of his peculiar manners familiarly known 
 as Tom Wharton. He ren^ained in favour with William III., and 
 held high offices of state under Queen Anne and George I, He com- 
 posed the celebrated " Lillibullero," and used to boast that he had 
 sung a King out of three kingdoms. He died 12th April, 1713. 
 
 X Son of Archibald Campbell, of Succoth, and Helen Wallace, of 
 EUerslie, Hay CampbeU was admitted advocate in 1757. Obtaining 
 distinction as a lawyer, he was appointed Lord Advocate in 1784, and 
 was in 1799 promoted as Lord President of the Court of Session. 
 This office he resigned in 1808, when ho was created a baronet. He
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 275 
 
 ingenuity, but had a very weak voice and a diminutive appearance 
 and manner. I said his pleading was like Giardini's playing 
 on a child's fiddle/' 
 
 " The extracts of a book given in the review often please us 
 much more than the book itself does. The extracts are embel- 
 lished and illustrated with criticism. It is like collops well- 
 seasoned and served up with a good sauce, which are better 
 eating than the sirloin or rump from whence they are cut. 
 (Or, thus one eats with greater relish slices or collops well 
 seasoned and served up with a good sauce, than one does the 
 sirloin or rump from whence they are cut)." 
 
 " I said the Court of Session was much more quiet and 
 agreeable when President Dundas * was absent. ' When he iS 
 there,' said I, ' you feel yourself as in a bleachfield with a large 
 dog in it. He is chained and does not bite you. But he barks 
 wowf, loowf, and makes you start ; your nerves are hurt by him.' " 
 
 "Mr. Alexander Murray, t said that the President Dundas 
 upon the bench was like Lord Kelly playing in a concert — very 
 quick, loud, and rumbling. Nothing can be a more lively 
 representation of his manner than this, when you harangue a 
 little with the president's blustering tone and bounces of voice 
 at intervals — ' I cannot agree to give you this cause against the 
 Duke of Gordon, sitting here as judge on great revolution 
 principles,' &c." 
 
 " I said that Mr. Charles Hayj and I, who studied Scotch law 
 
 died on the 28th March, 1823, in his eighty-ninth year. The 
 Most Eeverend Archibald Campbell Tait, D.C.L., Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, is his grandson. 
 
 * See supra, p. 255. 
 
 f Alexander Murray was admitted to the Scottish bar in 1758, and 
 three years afterwards succeeded his father as sheriff of Peeblesshire. 
 In 1775 he was appointed Solicitor-General, and was in 1780 chosen 
 M.P. for Peeblesshire. He was promoted to the bench in 1783, 
 with the title of Lord Henderland. He died 16th March, 1795. 
 
 X Charles Hay passed advocate in 1768, and with the title of Lord
 
 276 BOS\VELLIANA. 
 
 together, used to go to Mr. McLaiirin,* when we found any 
 difficulty, as to a mill to get it ground. 'Yes,' said Crosbie, 
 ' and he made you twenty difficulties out of one.' ' The obser- 
 vation,' said I, ' is just and witty. It reminds me of the fable of 
 the lady, who when she was not pleased with her looks dashed 
 the mirror in pieces, and so saw a multitude of ugly faces instead 
 of one.' " 
 
 " 26th June, 1774. — At a Sunday's supper at Dr. "Webster's, 
 when I was finding fault with a lady for going to visit a rela-. 
 tion who had married a low man, the Doctor said that treating 
 such people with mere civility was the best way to get the 
 better of them. I answered, ' I don't want to get the better of 
 
 Newton was raised to the bench in 1806. By Lord Cockburn in 
 his " Memorials " he is thus described : — " A man famous for law, 
 paunch, whist, claret, and worth. His judicial title was Newton, but 
 in private life he was chiefly known as 'the Mighty.' He was a 
 bulky man with short legs, twitching eyes, and a large purple visage ; 
 no speaker, but an excellent writer and adviser ; deep and accurate in 
 liis law, in which he had extensive employment. Honest, warm-hearted 
 and considerate, he was always true to his principles and his friends. 
 But these and other good qualities were all apt to be lost sight of in 
 people's admiration of his drinking. His daily and flowing cups 
 raised him far above the evil days of sobriety on which he had fallen, 
 and made him worthy of honours quaffed with the Scandinavian 
 heroes. His delight was to sit smiling, quiet, and listening ; saying 
 little, but that little always sensible, for he used to hold that con- 
 versation — at least, when it was of the sort that merits admiration 
 — spoiled good company." Lord Newton died on the 19th October, 
 1811. 
 
 * John Maclaurin, son of the celebrated Professor Colin Maclaurin, 
 was admitted advocate in 175G. He enjoyed a high reputation as a 
 lawyer, and was extensively consulted by his professional brethren. 
 In 1788 he was raised to the bench, with the judicial title of Lord 
 Dreghorn. He died on the 24th December, 1796, in his sixtyrsecond 
 year. His works, chiefly on judicial subjects, were published in 1798 
 in two octavo volumes.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 277 
 
 them, I want to get rid of them : yon may get the better of a sow 
 by going into the mire and boxing it; but who would do it?' 
 My wife, who wanted to support Dr. Webster, though slie had 
 not much attended to the dispute, said something which was of 
 pretty much the same import with my remarks. ' Well,' said I, 
 ' this is good enough. She thinks she is opposing me, and yet 
 she agrees with me ; she thinks she is riding a race with me 
 and getting the better, and all the time she is behind me.' " 
 
 " My father told me that when he got his gown upon the 
 resignation of the worthy Lord Dun, * he went and waited 
 upon him, and said, ' My lord, as I am to be your lordship's 
 unworthy successor I am conife to ask your blessing.' ' Sir/ 
 said Lord Dun, ' I held that office too long, for I was come to 
 be but half a judge. Nay, what do I say ? I was come to be 
 worse, for I was able to give corporal presence but one-half of 
 the year, and when I was present I could not have given that 
 attention which every man ought to have who decides on the 
 property of others. But to tell you the truth, I held my office 
 from an apprehension that they might put in a man even worse 
 than half a judge. However, sir, since you are to be my 
 successor/ — (he then paid my father some genteel compliments) ; 
 he added, 'I have no title to give a blessing, but if my prayers 
 can be of any service to you, while I live they shall never be 
 wanting/ " 
 
 "29th June, 1774— I said the business of the Court of 
 Session went on as fast without the President f as with him, 
 though with less noise, when he was absent the court was a 
 
 * David Erskine, son of the proprietor of Dun, was called to the 
 Bar in 1698. As parliamentary representative of the county of 
 Forfar he strongly opposed the Union. In 1710 he was appointed a 
 Lord of Session, when he took the title of Lord Dun. He died 
 on the 26th May, 1758, in his eighty-fifth year. Lord Dun was 
 respected for his piety. 
 
 t Lord President Dundas.
 
 278 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 plain girr (hoop), which ran smoothly and quietly ; when he was 
 there, it was a girr with jinglers.' " 
 
 " When Charles Townshend * read some of Lord Karnes' f 
 ' Elements of Criticism,' he said, 'This is the work of a dull man 
 grown whimsical,' — a most characteristical account of Lord 
 Karnes as a writer." Mr. George Wallace. X 
 
 * The Right Hon. Charles Townshend, styled by Lord Macaulay 
 " the most brilliant and versatile of mankind," was second son of the 
 third Viscount Townshend. Entering the House of Commons in his 
 twenty-second year, he became in Chatham's last administration 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the House of Commons. 
 He died suddenly 4th September, 1767, in his forty-fifth year. A 
 considerable humorist, he marred his reputation by a tendency to 
 sarcasm. 
 
 f Henry Home, Lord Kames, author of " The Elements of Criticism " 
 and other works, was son of George Home of Kames, Berwicksliire. 
 He passed advocate in 1723, and was elevated to the bench in 1752. 
 He died 27th December, 1782, aged eighty-seven. 
 
 X Second son of the Rev. Robert Wallace, D.D., George Wallace 
 was born at Moffat in 1730. Admitted advocate in 1754, he attained 
 considerable eminence in his profession. He published " A System 
 of the Principles of the Law of Scotland," vol. i., Edinb., 1760, folio; 
 "Thoughts on the Origin of Feudal Powers, and the Descent of 
 Ancient Peerages in Scotland," Edinb., 1783, 4to. ; "The Nature 
 and Descent of Ancient Peerages, addressed to the Earl of Mansfield," 
 Edmb., 1785, 8vo. ; "Prospects from Hills in Fife," 3rd edit., 
 Edinb., 1802, 8vo. The last work is composed in verse, the author 
 remarking in the preface that the " Prospects " were mostly composed 
 many years ago to afford their " author an occasional relief from the 
 austerity and vexations of a profession very remote from poetry." 
 Mr. Wallace died on the 15th March, 1805, in his seventy-fifth year. 
 His father. Dr. Robert Wallace, successively minister at Moffat and 
 in the city of Edinburgh, was founder of the Philosophical Society, 
 which afterwards merged into the Royal Society of Edinburgh. An 
 expert mathematician, he assisted Dr. Alexander Webster in making 
 calculations connected with the establishment of the Ministers 
 Widows' Fund. He died in 1771.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 279 
 
 " Mr. Andrew Balfour * said of Lord Kames, ' He has the 
 obstinacy of a mule and the levity of a harlequin.' " 
 
 Mr. Charles Hay. 
 
 " Mr. Alexander Lockhart, Dean of the Faculty of Advocates, 
 very readily shed tears when he pleased, whether from feeling 
 or from a weakness in his eyes was disputed. He was also very 
 fond of getting his fees. I applied to him a part of a fine passage 
 in Shakspere, — 
 
 ' He hath a tear for pity, and a hand 
 Open as the day. ' " 
 
 " When Andrew Stuart declared himself a candidate as 
 member of Parliament for Lanarkshire after being stigmatised 
 so severely by Thurlow and Lord Camden for his conduct in the 
 Douglas cause, Sir John Douglas, who was very keen in the 
 great cause, and had admirable extravagant sallies, said, ' What 
 think you of this fellow ? He has brass indeed ! why, you may 
 make ten dozen of tea-kettles out of his forehead.' " 
 
 I was present. 
 
 " I always wished to go to the English bar. When I found 
 I could labour, I said it was pity to dig in a lead mine when I 
 could get to a gold one." 
 
 " In 1774 there came on before the Court of Session a cause 
 at the instance of a Uack-\- for having it declared that he was 
 free. I was one of the counsel. We took no fees ; and I said I 
 knew one thing, that he was not a Guinea hlack." 
 
 " General Scott J was a man of wonderful good luck. He 
 
 * Andrew Balfour was admitted advocate in 1763 ; he practised at 
 the bar for nearly half a century. 
 
 ■j- The negro's name was Joseph Knight. (See stipra, p. 115.) 
 
 + Major-General John Scott, of Balcomie, descended from Scot of 
 
 Scotstarvet, author of " The Staggering State," was one of the most 
 
 Boted Scotsmen of his period. About 1768 he was elected U.V. for 
 
 Fifeshire. Lady Mary Hay.his first wife, was the eldest daughter of
 
 280 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 married Lady Mary Hay, a very fine woman. She ran off with 
 Captain Sutherland, but was catched at Barnet, and the General 
 got a divorce with the utmost ease. He then married Miss 
 Peggy Dundas, who proved an admirable wife. Everything 
 turned out well for him. Sandie Murray * said he was like a 
 cat, throw him as you please he always falls on his feet. Nairne.t 
 on hearing this, quoted the motto of the Isle of Man, — 
 
 ' Quocunque jeceris stahit, ' " 
 
 " General Scott and General Grant, I two noted gamesters, 
 were one day driving upon the sands of Leith at the races in a 
 post-chaise together. Nisbet, § of Dirleton, pointing to them, 
 said very significantly from Prior, ' An honest, but a simple 
 pair. 
 
 "June 18th, 1774. — I said in a dispute with Sir Alexander 
 Dick, II on the different estimation to be put on sons and 
 
 James, thirteenth Earl of Erroll. The general married, secondly, 
 ^largaret, youngest daughter of Eobert Dimdas of Arniston, Lord 
 President of the Court of Session. General Scott died in December, 
 1775. A notorious gamester, he acquired numerous estates, and at 
 the period of his death was regarded as the wealthiest commoner in 
 Scotland. He is represented by the Duke of Portland, 
 
 * Afterwards Lord Henderland. 
 
 f Sir William Nairne, Bart., Lord Dunsinnan (see suprcC). 
 
 I General Sir Archibald Grant had served in the East Indies ; he 
 succeeded his father as third baronet of Monymusk. He died in 
 1796. 
 
 § "William Nisbet of Dirleton died 1784. He was a patron of 
 Juhn Kay, the eminent Edinburgh caricaturist, who frequently 
 resided at his house. His present representative is his great-grand- 
 daughter, Lady Mary Cluistopher Nisbet Hamilton. 
 
 II Sir Alexander Dick, Bart., younger son of Sir William Cuning- 
 hame of Caprington, Ayrshire, was born in October, 1703. For some 
 years he practised as a physician in Pembrokeshire. Succeeding his 
 brother in 1746 in the lands and baronetcy of Prestonlield, near 
 Edinburgh, he assumed the name of Dick, and fixed his residence at 
 the family seat. He was elected President of tlie Royal College of
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 281 
 
 daughters, that sons are truly part of a family ; daughters go into 
 other families. Sons are the furniture of your house ; daughters 
 are furniture in your house only for sale. No man would wish 
 to have his daughters fixtures. Such of them as are well looked 
 are like pictures in the catalogues of the exhibition, those 
 marked thus are for sale. (Or thus, daughters are like certain 
 pictures in the exhibition, those marked thus, &c.)" 
 
 '-'June 18th, 1774— Cosmo Gordon and I were talking of 
 David Moncrieffe, * whose vanity was consummate, and who 
 was flattered prodigiously by those whom he entertained, 
 Cosmo mentioned a company of some of them, and said he 
 would be embalmed. ' Yes,' said I, ' David gets himself made a 
 mummy in his own lifetime.' Said Cosmo, ' Like Charles V., 
 who w^ent into his own coffin.' " 
 
 "I said Moncrieffe entertained people to flatter him, as we 
 feed a cow to give us milk. The better the pasture, the more 
 plentiful and richer will the milk be. Moncrieffe therefore feeds 
 his pecora ventri ohedientia in clover. Other comparisons may be 
 made. He feeds people like silkworms, for their silk, or like 
 civet catSj for their perfume." 
 
 " Mr. Brown, t merchant in Edinburgh, who, from his stiffness 
 of temper and manners went by the name of Buckram Brown, 
 was a violent American; and when it was said that the 
 
 Physicians, Edinburgh, and attained other professional and scientific 
 honours. Dr. Johnson held him in high esteem. Boswell, in his 
 *' Tour to the Hebrides," commends Sir Alexander for his amiabdity 
 and culture. He died on the lOth Kovemher,'1785, aged eighty-two. 
 
 * David Stuart Moncrieffe, of ]\Ioredun, second son of Sir David 
 Moncrieffe, Bart. He was an advocate at the Scottish bar, and 
 latterly one of the Barons of Exchequer. 
 
 t John Brown, china merchant in Old Shakespeare Square, and 
 sometime one of the magistrates of Edinburgh, caused to be erected 
 at his sole expense an elegant window of stained glass in the great 
 hall of the Court of Session known as the Parliament House. He 
 died 13th April, 1780.
 
 282 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 king's army had defeated and dispersed General Washington's 
 army near New York, ' That is nothing,' said he ; ' for there 
 will start up new armies of twenty, thirty, forty thousand men. 
 The Hon. Captain Archibald Erskine * on being told this said 
 very pleasantly, alluding to Falstaff's fictitious foes and ]\Ir. 
 Brown's nickname, yes, men in Buckram. ' " 
 
 I was present. 
 
 "There was a woman called Mrs. Betty Kettle, who lived 
 with Mr. Thomson of Charleton, f and was exceedingly ill-tem- 
 pered and troublesome. Lady Anne Erskine I said, ' ]\Irs. 
 Betty Kettle kept all the house in hot water. ' " 
 
 HoNBLE. Capt. Archibald Eeskine. 
 
 "The writers who attacked David Hume before Beattie § 
 took the lash in hand) treated him with so much deference that 
 they had no effect. He was cased in a covering of respect. 
 But Beattie stripped him of all his assumed dignity, and having 
 laid his back bare, scourged him till lie smarted keenly, 
 and cursed again. David was on very civil terms with his 
 former opponents, being treated by them as Dr. Shebbeare 
 
 *• Hon. Archibald Erskine was younger brother of Thomas Alex- 
 ander, the musical Earl of Kellie, and succeeded him in 1781 as 
 seventh earl. For twenty-six years he served in the army, and 
 became lieutenant-colonel of the 104th Foot. In 1790 he was 
 chosen a Scottish representative peer. Through his unwearied efforts 
 the restraints imposed on Scottish EpiscopaUans in 1746 and 1748 
 were abrogated. He died at KeUie, Fifeshire, 8th May, 1797, 
 aged sixty-two. 
 
 t John Thomson, of Charleton, Fifeshire. 
 
 J Lady Anne Erskine was eldest daughter of Alexander, third Earl 
 of Kellie, and wife of her cousin. Sir Alexander Erskine, second 
 baronet of Cambo, Lord Lyon King at Arms. 
 
 § James Beattie, LL.D., Professor of Moral Philosophy, Marischal 
 College, Aberdeen. His essay on " The Nature and Immutability of 
 Truth," alluded to by Boswell, Avas published in 1770. Dr. Beattie 
 died on the 6th October, 1802.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 283 
 
 was in the pillory, who was being allowed to wear a fine 
 powdered flowing wig. But he was virulent against Beattie, as 
 I have witnessed, for Beattie treated him as an enemy to morals 
 and religion deserved." 
 
 "I said that Dempster and Crosbie were different: thus 
 Dempster had elegant knowledge of men and books, with 
 vivacity to show it; Crosbie solid stores of learning and law 
 and antiquities and natural philosophy. Dempster resembles a 
 jeweller's shop, gay and glittering in the sun; Crosbie, the 
 warehouse of an opulent merchant, dusky somewhat, but filled 
 with large quantities of substantial goods." 
 
 " r am for most part either in too high spirits or too low. I 
 am a grand wrestler with life. It is either above me, or I am 
 above it; yet there are calm intervals in which I have no 
 struggle with life, and I go quietly on. — February, 1777." 
 
 "Sir Adam Fergusson,* who, by a strange coincidence of 
 chances, got in to be member of parliament for Ayrshire in 
 1774, was the great-grandson of a messenger. I was talking at 
 Eowallan f on the 17th March, 1777, with great indignation that 
 the whole families of the county should be defeated by an upstart. 
 Major Dunlop X urged the popular topick, that the other candi- 
 
 * Su' Adam Fergusson, Bart., of Kilkerran, LL.D., was eldest 
 son of Sir James Fergusson, Bart., a judge of the Court 01 Session 
 by the title of Lord Kilkerran. Elected M.P. for Ayrshire in 1774, 
 Sir Mam continued to represent that county for eighteen years. He 
 afterwards sat for the county of Edinburgh. By the House of Lords 
 he was found to be heir-general to Alexander, tenth Earl of Glencairn. 
 He died 23rd September, 1813. That he was "great-grandson of a 
 messenger" is not historically borue out. His paternal great-grand- 
 father was Simon Fergusson of Auchinwin, youngest son of Sir John 
 Fergusson of Kilkerran, Knight, 
 
 t The seat of John, fourth Earl of Loudoun. 
 
 t Major Andrew Dunlop was second son of John Dunlop, of 
 Dunlop, Ayrshire. He served in the American war, and after- 
 wards commanded the Ayrshire Fencibles. He died in 1801. His
 
 284 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 date, Mr. Kennedy, * was supported by noblemen who wanted 
 to annihilate the influence of the gentlemen, and he still harped 
 on the coalition of three peers, ' Sir,' said I, ' let the ancient 
 respectable families have the lead, rather than the spawn of a 
 messenger. Better three peers than three oycscs.' " 
 
 " Mr. David Eae, t advocate, when he pleaded in appeals at 
 the bar of the House of Lords, used to speak a strange kind of 
 English by way of avoiding Scotch. In particular he pro- 
 nounced the termination, Hon, as in petition, very open, that 
 he might not sound it shin, as is done in Scotland. Mr. Nairne, 
 advocate, said Mr. Rae has shone — tion—moxQ in the House of 
 Lords than any man." I was present. 
 
 " Mr. David Rae, advocate, one day pleaded a cause in the 
 Court of Session with a great deal of extravagant drollery. Mr, 
 John Swinton \ said of him upon that occasion, he was not 
 only Rae, but OuM." Mk. MacLauein. 
 
 " Swift says, ' No man keeps me at a distance, but he keeps 
 himself at as great a distance from me.' This has the appear- 
 ance as if the man of dignity suffered something, whereas it is 
 
 mother was Frances Anue, daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas 
 Wallace of Craigie. She was a friend and correspondent of the 
 poet Burns. 
 
 * David Kennedy was admitted advocate in 1752. He was 
 elected M.P. for Ayrshire in 1768. In 1775 he succeeded his elder 
 brother as tenth Earl of Cassilis, and died 18th December, 1792. 
 
 t David Eae was called to the bar in 1751, and soon obtained 
 reputation as a lawyer. He Avas appointed a judge in succession to 
 Lord Auchinleck in November, 1782, and Avas promoted as Lord 
 Justice Clerk in 1799. He was created a baronet in 1804. He died 
 the same year, aged eighty. 
 
 :j: John Swinton, son of John Swinton of Swinton, was admitted 
 advocate in 1743. After several professional preferments ho was 
 raised to the bench as Lord Swinton in 1782, He pubHshed an 
 abridgment of statutes relating to Scotland, and other works. He 
 died 5th January, 1799. '
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 285 
 
 just what he wishes. He wishes to be at a distance from vulgar 
 disagreeable people." 
 
 " A friend and neighbour of mine, Mr. H n, of S m * 
 
 is like a fire of a certain species of coal which has a deal of 
 heat but no flame. He is warm, but wants free expression." 
 
 " Lord Monboddo f was urging with keen credulity that the 
 Patagonians were really at a medium above eight feet high. 
 ' Nay,' said General Melville, X ' I can believe anything great, 
 as I happened in my youth to see a whale cast on shore,' ' A 
 whale,' said I, ' is a good cast to the imagination.' " 
 
 Monboddo, 22nd November, 1778. 
 
 " The good humour of some people must be supplied by 
 external and occasional aids, like a pond which depends for 
 water on the rain which falls. Others have a constant flow of 
 good humour within themselves, like a spring well." 
 
 * John Hamilton, of Sundrum, was for thirty-six years Convener of 
 the county of Ayr. He died in 1821 at a very advanced age. 
 
 t James Burnett, of Monboddo, was admitted advocate in 1737. 
 After a brdliant and successful career at the bar, he was raised to the 
 bench in 1767 as Lord Monboddo. He visited London every year, 
 accomplishing the journey on horseback. Introduced at court, he 
 was especially honoured by George III., who much relished liis con- 
 versation. An accomplished scholar, he cherished some strange ideas 
 regarding the origin of mankind. Of his several works the most 
 notable is his " Origin and Progress of Language." He died on 
 the 26th May, 1799, aged eighty-five. 
 
 J General Robert Melville was son of the minister of Moniraail, 
 Fifeshire. Entering the army in his twenty-first year, he served in 
 the invasion of Guadaloupe and other important concerns. After 
 the general peace he travelled over Europe, and endeavoured to 
 ascertain the passage of Hannibal over the Alps. He traced the sites 
 of different Roman camps in Britain. His liistorical and antiquarian 
 learning were acknowledged by several learned societies, and the 
 University of Edinburgh granted him the degree in laws. General 
 Melville died in 1809, aged eighty-six.
 
 286 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " The beautiful Lady Wallace * said in a company that she 
 had had a dream, which from her way of expressing herself was 
 suspected to be a little wanton. She said she could not tell it 
 to the company. She could tell it but to one gentleman at a 
 time. She told it to Mr. Crosbie. ' It seems,' said I, ' you take 
 Mr. Crosbie to be a Joseph, that you tell your dream to him.' 
 A witty allusion to Joseph's character, both for interpreting 
 dreams and for chastity. — 11th December, 1779." 
 
 "Few characters will bear the examination of reason. You 
 may examine them for curiosity, as you examine bodies with a 
 microscope. But you will be as much disgusted with their gross 
 qualities. You will see them as Swift makes Gulliver see the 
 skins of the ladies of Brobdignag." 
 
 " A poor minister who had come to Edinburgh had his horse 
 arrested. He upon this gave in a petition to the Lords of 
 Session, praying to have his personal estate sequestrated and his 
 horse delivered up to him. The lords granted his petition. 
 George Fergussonf found fault with them for giving him his 
 horse. * Come, come,' said I, ' you need not be angry ; there is 
 no kindness in it, for you know the proverb, ' Set a beggar on 
 horseback, and he'U ride to the devil.' " 1779. 
 
 " I have not an ardent love for parties of pleasure ; yet if I 
 am once engaged in them no man is more joyous. The difference 
 between me and one who is the promoter of them is like that 
 between a water-dog and an ordinary dog. I have no instinct 
 prompting me ; I never go into the water of my own accord ; 
 but throw me in, and you will find I swim excellently," 
 
 * Eglinton, youngest daughter of Sir William MaxweU, Bart., 
 of Monreith, married, 4th September, 1773, Sir Thomas Wallace, 
 sixth Baronet of Craigie. Like her elder sister, Jaue Duchess of 
 Gordon, she was celebrated for her beauty and wit. 
 
 t Son of Sir James Fergusson, Bart., of Kdkerran, George Fer- 
 gusson was admitted advocate in 1765. Appointed a judge in 1799 
 he adopted the title of Lord Hermand. He retired in 1826, and died 
 the following year.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 287 
 
 " Sir Joshua Eeynolds observed that a little wit seemed to 
 go a great way with the ancients, if we might judge from the 
 instances of it which Plutarch has collected. Edmund Burke 
 upon this observed that wit was a commodity which would 
 not keep. Said his brother Richard,* ' If there had been more 
 salt in it, it would have kept.' " 
 
 SiE Joshua Reynolds, London, 
 25th April, 1776. 
 
 " The difference between satire in London and in Scotland is 
 this : — In London you are not intimately known, so the 
 satire is thrown at you from a distance, and, however keen, 
 does not tear and mangle you. In London the attack on 
 character is clean boxing. In Scotland it is grappling. They 
 tear your hair, scratch your face, get you down in the mire, and 
 not only hurt but disfigure and debase you. 
 
 " A company were talking of Dr. Johnson. Dr. Armstrong, 
 who had a violent prejudice against him, and was in the habit 
 of saying and being praised for saying odd things, was present. 
 Being asked if his dictionary was not very well done, ' Yes,' said 
 he, ' for one man ; but there should have been four-aud-tweuty 
 —a blockhead for every letter.' " Mr. Dempster. 
 
 " Burke, talking to Mr. Dempster of , a member of Par- 
 liament who had deserted his party for court advantages, asked 
 if he had not fallen. ' Yes,' said Dempster, * on his feet.' " 
 
 Mr. Dempster. 
 
 " Talking of the great men whom the resistance or rebellion 
 in America had produced, Dempster said, ' It costs a great deal 
 to raise heroes ; they must be raised in a hotbed.' ' Yes,' said 
 
 * Richard Burke, collector of Grenada, was brother of the cele- 
 brated Edmund Burke, who used every opportunity of bringing him 
 forward. He possessed some share of his brother's powers, which, 
 however, he only displayed in the social circle.
 
 288 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 I, ' these have cost a great deal of bark of royal oak, and a good 
 deal of dung too." London, 23rd April, 1779. 
 
 "The conversation having turned on Andrew Stuart's* artful 
 defence of the treacherous conduct of his brother to Lord Pigot,t 
 I said, ' He has laid on a thick colouring upon his brother's 
 character. It would not clean ; he has died (sic) it.' " 
 
 London, 23rd April, 1779. 
 
 " Mr. Seward X once mentioned to nie, either as a remark of 
 his own or of somebody else's, that the most agreeable conver- 
 sation is that which entertains you at the time, but of which you 
 remember no particulars.' I said to-day I thought otherwise, 
 ' as it is better both to be entertained at the time and remember 
 good things which have passed. There is the same difference as 
 between making a pleasant voyage and returning home empty, 
 and making a pleasant voyage and returning home richly 
 laden.'" 23rd April, 1779. 
 
 " I wrote to Dempster from Edinburgh, 13tli December, 1779. 
 I am in good spirits, but you must not expect entertainment 
 from me. The most industrous bee cannot make honey without 
 flowers. But what are the flowers of Edinburgh ? " 
 
 * Andrew Stuart, M.P. (see supra), published in 1778 "Letters to 
 the Directors of the East India Company respecting the conduct of 
 Brigadier-General James Stuart at Madras," 4 to. 
 
 t Sir George Pigot, Bart., Governor of Fort St. George, Madras, 
 was created a peer of Ireland 18th January, 1766, as Baron Pigot, of 
 Patshul, county Dublin. At his death in illegal confinement in 
 India, 17th August, 1777, the barony expired. 
 
 + William Seward, F.R.S., was born at London in 1747, his 
 father being a wealthy brewer, partner in the house of Calvert and 
 Seward. Educated at the Charterhouse and at Oxford, he early devoted 
 attention to literary concerns. He published " Biographiana " and 
 " Literary Miscellanies," and edited " Anecdotes of some Distinguished 
 Persons," in four volumes, octavo. Ho was much esteemed for Ids 
 amiable manners. He died 24th April, 1789.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 280 
 
 " Showing Dr. Johnson slight pretty pieces of poetry is like 
 showing him fine delicate shells, which he crushes in handling." 
 
 " In the debate concerning Sir Hugh Talliser* in the House 
 of Commons, when it was proposed to address the king to dismiss 
 him, Mr. Wedderburne said, ' Stained as that gentleman's Hag 
 has been, I should be very sorry to see it hoisted over him as an 
 acting admiral ; but I can see no reason why for one unfortunate 
 spot he should be deprived of the last consolation of its waving 
 over his grave.' " Public Advertiser. 
 
 " My wife was angry at a silk cloak for Veronica being ill- 
 made, and said it could not be altered. ' Then,' said I, 'it must 
 be a Persian cloak,' alluding to the silk called Persian and the 
 unalterable Persian laws." 1780. 
 
 "I told Paoli that Topham Beauclercf found fault with 
 Brompton'sJ refreshing the Pembroke family picture by 
 
 * Sir Hugh Palliser was bom at Kirk Deighton, Yorkshire, 20111 
 February, 1722. Joining the navy, he became lieutenant in 1742. 
 He was posted captain in 1746, after taking four French privateers. 
 In 1759 he led the seamen who aided in the capture of Quebec. In 
 1773 he was created a baronet and elected M.P. for Scarborough. He 
 became a Lord of the Admiralty, and Vice- Admiral of the Blue. In 
 an action off Ushant on the 27th July, 1778, a misunderstanding 
 arose between Admiral PalHser and Admiral Keppel, which was 
 attended with a court-martial, and brought on Palliser unmerited 
 odium. He became Governor of Greenwich Hospital, and died 19tli 
 March, 1796. 
 
 f Topham Beauclerk, only son of Lord Sidney Beauclcrk, third son 
 of the first Duke of St. Alban's, was born in 1739. When a student 
 at Trinity College, Oxford, he bucame acquainted with Dr. Johnson, 
 who, though many years his senior, was partial to his society. Johnsson 
 permitted salhes from Beauclerk which others might not attempt. 
 Beauclerk died in 1781. 
 
 X Robert Brompton, an artist of considerable celebrity, accom- 
 panied Lord Northampton, the Enghsh ambassador, to Venice, where 
 he executed portraits of the Duke of York and other notable persons. 
 
 u
 
 290 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 Vandyck, and said he had spoiled it by painting it over (which, 
 by the way, Lord Pembroke assured me was not the case). ' Po, 
 po' ' said Paoli (of whom Beauclerc had talked disrespectfully), 
 he has not spoiled it ; Beauclerc scratches at everything. He is 
 ascustomed to scratch [scratching his head in allusion to 
 Beauclerc's lousiness], and he'd scratch at the face of Venus.' " 
 
 London, 1778. 
 
 " Bodens was dining at a house where a neck of roast veal 
 was set down. After eating a bone of it, he was waiting for 
 something else. The lady of the house told him it was their 
 family dinner, and there was nothing else. ' Nay, madam,' said 
 Bodens, stuttering, ' if it be n-neck or n-othing, I'll have t'other 
 bone.'" Earl Pembroke,* London, 
 
 26th AprU, 1778. 
 
 " Spottiswoodt asked me what was the reason I had given 
 up drinking wine. ' Because,' said I, ' I never could drink it 
 but to excess.' Said he, ' An excessive good reason.' " 
 
 Dining at Paoli's, 
 28th AprH, 1778. 
 
 He returned to London in 1707, but not meeting with sufficient 
 encouragement he proceeded to St. Petersburg, where he died in 1790. 
 
 * Henry, tenth Earl of Pembroke, was lieutenant-general in the 
 army and colonel of the first regiment of dragoons. He was born in 
 1734, and died 26th January, 1794. 
 
 t The representative of an ancient Scottish house, which produced 
 a distinguished archbishop and a Lord President of the Court of 
 Session, John Spottiswoode, younger of Spottiswoode, practised in 
 London as a solicitor. His literary tastes brought him into contact 
 with men of letters. The conversation alluded to in the text took 
 place at PaoU's, when Dr. Johnson, Sir Joshua Eeynolds, and 
 others were present. In his " Life of Dr. Johnson," Boswell, who 
 reported the conversation in reference to wine drinking, omits with 
 unusual reticence his remark respecting his own habits. Spottiswoode 
 was son-in-law of William Strahan, the printer. He died 3rd Feb- 
 ruary, 1805.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 291 
 
 " When a man talks of his own faults, it is often owing to a 
 consciousness that they cannot be concealed, and others will 
 treat them more severely than he himself does. He thinks 
 others will throw him down, so he had better lye down softly." 
 
 London, April, 1778. 
 
 " I can more easily part with a good sum at once than with a 
 number of small sums — with a hundred guineas rather than 
 with two guineas at fifty different times ; as one has less pain 
 from having a tooth drawn whole than when it breaks and is 
 pulled out in pieces." London, April, 1778. 
 
 " When Wilkes was borne on the shoulders of the unruly 
 mob, Burke applied to him what Horace says of Pindar, — 
 ' Fertur numeris legibus solutus.' " 
 
 Mr. Wilkes, London, April, 1778. 
 
 N.B, — " Dr. Johnson* thought this an admirable double pun ; 
 and he will seldom allow any vent to that species of witticism." 
 
 "General Paoli was in a boat at Portsmouth at the naval 
 review in 17 — . He seated himself close to the helm. They 
 wanted to steer the vessel, and in the hurry of getting to the 
 helm they overturned the general. He said, very pleasantly : — 
 * Darbord que je me metts au gouvernail ou men chasse.* " 
 
 Geneeal Paoli, London, 1778. 
 
 " At the regatta on the Thames, Sir Joshua Eeynolds said to 
 Dunning,t ' I wonder who is the Director of this show ? ' 
 
 * This anecdote is related in the Life of Johnson, the quotation 
 from Horace being correctly given, thus : — 
 
 " Numerisque fertur 
 Lege solutis." 
 
 f John Dunning was born at Ashburton, Devonshire, on the 18th 
 October, 1731. CaUed to the bar, he attained a first rank in his pro- 
 fession. In 1767 he was appointed Solicitor- General. In 1768 he 
 was elected M.P. for Calne, He was in 1782 created Baron Asli- 
 burton, and appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. Ho 
 was an occasional associate of Dr. Johnson, who styled him " the
 
 292 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 Dunning, who delights in the Indicrous in an extreme degree, 
 pointed to a blackguard who was sitting on one of the lamps on 
 Westminster Bridge, and said, ' There he is.' Sir Joshua 
 observing a fellow on a wooden post nearer the water answered, 
 ' I believe you are right, and there is one who has a post under 
 him/" Sir Joshua Keynolds, London, 
 
 April 25th, 1778. 
 
 " Colman* had a house opposite to a timber yard. The pros- 
 pect of logs and deals was but clumsy. Colman said it would 
 soon be covered by some trees planted before his windows. 
 Sir Joshua Eeynolds upon this quoted the proverb, ' You will 
 not be able to see the ivood for trees.'' " 
 
 Sir Joshua Eeynolds, 
 . 25th April, 1778. 
 
 " At Sir Joshua Eeynolds' table observed that in the 
 
 Germanick politicks at present the King of Prussia was a 
 
 good attorney for the . * Yes,' said I, ' and he has a good 
 
 power.' " 2nd May, 1778. 
 
 " In London you have an inexhaustible variety of company 
 to enjoy with superficial pleasure, and out of these you may 
 always have a few chosen friends for intimate cordiality. While 
 you have a wide lake to sport in, you may have a stewpond to 
 fatten, cherishing to high friendship, affection, and love, by 
 
 great lawyer." Informed by Boswell that Mr. Dunning experienced 
 pleasure in listening to him, Dr. Johnson expressed appreciation, 
 adding, " Here is a man willing to listen, to whom the world is 
 listening all the rest of the year," Lord Asliburton died 1 8th August, 
 1783. 
 
 * George Coleman the elder was born in 1733. While studying 
 at Christ Church, Oxford, he was caUed to the bar, but he soon 
 renounced practice as a barrister and sought fame as a dramatic author. 
 He became joint manager of Covent Garden Theatre, and was ulti- 
 mately proprietor of the Haymarket. For many years he enjoyed an 
 annuity from Lord Bath, who married his mother's sister. After a 
 period of mental aberration, Colman died in 1794, aged sixty-one.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 293 
 
 feeding with attention and kindne;^s. One must have a friend, 
 a wife, or a mistress much in private ; must dwell upon them, 
 if that phrase may be used ; must by reiterated habits of regard 
 feel the particular satisfaction of intimacy. Tliere must be 
 many coats of the colour laid on to make a body substantial 
 enough to last, for the colour of ordinary agreeable acquaintance 
 is so slight that every feather can brush it off One should be 
 very careful in choosing for the stewpond. Horace says, 
 ' Qiialem coimnendes etiam at(2iie etiam respice! Such a recom- 
 mendation is useful to put us on our guard to preserve our 
 character for discernment. It is as much so to make us preserve 
 our own comfort in friendship." London, April, 1778. 
 
 " If you wish to be very happy with your friend, or wife, or 
 mistress, be with them in London or Bath, or some place where 
 you are both enjoying pleasure ; not in the country, where there 
 is dulness and weariness. You may, perhaps, bear up your 
 spirits even in dreary cold darkness in their company, but it is 
 too severe trial to make the experiment. There may be love 
 enough, yet not of such a supreme degree that warms amidst 
 external disadvantages. It is not giving them fair play. Be 
 with them in the sunshine ; let mutual gladness beam upon your 
 hearts; and let the ideas of pleasure be associated with the 
 ideas of your being together. If pity be akin to love, it is so to 
 melancholy love. Joy is the fond relation of delightful love of 
 the sweet passion." London, April and May, 1778. 
 
 " General Paoli one day asked me to read to him something 
 good out of my journal of conversations, which he found me 
 busy recording. I was running my eye over the pages, mut- 
 tering and long of bringing forth anything, upon which the 
 general observed with his usual metaphorical M\cy, finesse 
 d' esprit, ' Eeason says I am a deer lost in a wood. It is difficult 
 to find me.' I had nothing to answer at the time, but after- 
 wards—I forget how long— I said, ' The wood is crowded with 
 deer. There are so many good things, one is at a loss which to 
 choose.'" London, April, 1778.
 
 294 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " Mr. Crosbie was the member of several clubs. I said to 
 him, " Crosbie, you are quite a club sawyer.' " 
 
 " Dr. Webster was rather late in coming to a dinner which I 
 gave at Fortune's, 9th July, 1774. His apology was, that just 
 as he was coming out a man arrived who had money to pay 
 him, and he stayed to receive it. * You was very right,' said I, 
 ' for .money is not like fame, that if you fly from it, it will pursue 
 you as your shadow does.' " 
 
 " Harry Erskine* was observing that a certain agent would 
 take it amiss to have it mentioned that his grandfather was a 
 bellman. ' I don't think it,' said I. ' A bellman is a respectable 
 title,' said Peter Murray ;t ' it is at least a sounding title.' " 
 
 " ' I was wondering one day how many times a lawyer walks 
 backwards and forwards in the outer house J in a forenoon,' said 
 Cosmo Gordon. ' You must take a compound ratio of his idle- 
 ness and his velocity.' " 
 
 " My wife said it would be much better to give salaries to 
 members of Parliament than to let them try what they can get 
 off their country by places and pensions. Said she, ' They are 
 
 * The Hon. Henry Erskine, second son of Henry David, fourth 
 Earl of Buchan, was a celebrated humorist. Born in 1746, he was 
 admitted advocate in 1768, and soon attained the foremost place in 
 his profession. He was Lord Advocate in 1783, and again in 1806. 
 He latterly retired from public business, residing on his estate of 
 Amondell, Linlithgowshire, where he died 8th October, 1817. His 
 younger brother was Lord Chancellor Erskine. 
 
 t Patrick Murray, an Edinburgh advocate, published, with others 
 "Decisions of the Court of Session," from November, 1760, to 
 JSTovember, 1764. Edinb., 1772, foHo. 
 
 * The outer house of the court of session, where the lords ordinary 
 formerly sat, is a spacious hall, the ancient meeting-place of the Scot- 
 tish Parliament. It is now solely used as a promenade-room by 
 advocates and others attending on the business of the court.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 295 
 
 like ostlers and postillions, who have no wages, and must support 
 themselves by vails.' " * 
 
 " One day when causes were called in the Inner House in an 
 irregular manner, and not according to the roll, I said to 
 Crosbie, ' The English courts run straight out like a fox ; ours 
 double like a hare.' " 
 
 "The pleasure of seeing Italy chiefly depends on the ideas 
 which a man carries thither. Take an ignorant mechanick or 
 an unlearned country squire to the banks of the Tiber. Show 
 him Mount Soracte, the ruins of Eome, and drive him on to 
 Naples, he will have little enjoyment. But a man whose mind 
 is stored with classical knowledo;e feels a noble enthusiasm. 
 His ideas uniting with the objects before him catch fire, and a 
 flame is produced as in a chemical process by the mingling of 
 certain substances, while others remain quite tame, A man 
 must have his imagination charged with classical particles." 
 
 " The severe measures taken against the Americans united 
 them firmly by a cement of blood." 
 
 A. Briton, Pul. Advert, 16th Sept., 1775. 
 
 " Parliament is now, instead of being the representative of the 
 nation, the echo of the Cabinet ; and its acts are only wrappers 
 to the ready prepared pills of the court laboratory for the people 
 to swaUow — if they do not stick in their throats." 
 
 A. Briton, Piib. Advert., 16th Sept., 1775. 
 
 " I said of a rich man who entertained us luxuriously, that 
 although he was exceedingly ridiculous, we restrained ourselves 
 from talking of him as we might do, lest we should lose his 
 feasts. Said I, ' he makes our teeth sentinels upon our tongues.' " 
 
 " I said that a drunken fellow was not honest. ' A stick," said 
 I ' kept allways moist becomes rotten.' " 
 
 * Household servants in Scotland formerly assembled in tlie haU 
 when guests were departmg, doing obeisance ta each, in acknowledg- 
 ment of which they expected gratuities. These were termed vails.
 
 296 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 "If a man entertains his company himself, it is a great 
 fatigue. It is blowing a fire with his own breath. Whoever 
 can afford it should have a led captain of strong animal spirits, 
 who may, like perpetual bellows, keep up the social flame." 
 
 "I told Nairne one afternoon that I had been taking an airing 
 with our solicitor-general. Said he, ' Was you learning to be 
 solicitor V ' No no,' said I ; ' solicitors-general are non docti, sed 
 facti: " 1777. 
 
 "Poor David Hamilton of Monklard, on account of his vote 
 in Lanarkshire, was made one of the macers of the Court of Ses- 
 sion. He had a constant hoarseness, so that he could scarcely 
 be heard when he called the causes and the lawyers, and was 
 indeed as imfit for a crier of court as a man could be. I said he 
 had no voice but at an election." 
 
 " Sandie Maxwell, the wine merchant, told a story very well, 
 and used to heighten it by greater and greater degrees of strong 
 humour, according to the disposition of the company. I said he 
 blew a story to any size, as a man blows figures in a glasshouse. 
 A satirical fellow would say, I warrant he shall not blow his 
 own bottles to too large a size." 
 
 " Lady Di Beauclerk* said to me she understood Mrs. V 
 
 was an idiot. I said I was told so too ; but when I was introduced 
 to her did not find it be true. ' Or perhaps,' said I, ' her being 
 less an idiot than I had imagined her to be may have made me 
 tliink she was not an idiot at all.' ' I think,' said Lady Di, ' she is 
 bad enough, if that be all that a lawyer has to say for her, that 
 she is only less an idiot than he imagined.' Said I, * There are 
 diCfei-ent kinds of idiots as of dogs, water idiots and land idiots, 
 and so on.' ' I think,' said Lady Di, ' that is worth writing 
 down.' " Richmond, 2 7th April, 1781. 
 
 * Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Cliarlea Duke of Marlborough, 
 was born in 1734, and in 1757 married Lord Bolingbroke. She was 
 divorced in 1768,' and thereafter became the wife of Mr. Tojiham 
 Beauclerk.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 297 
 
 " Lady Di Beauclerk told me that Langton had never been to 
 see her since she came to Eichmond, his head was so full of the 
 militia and Greek. ' Why/ said I, ' madam, he is of such a length, 
 he is awkward, and not easily moved.' ' But/ said she, ' if he had 
 laid himself at his length, his feet had been in London, and his 
 head might have been here eodem die.' " 
 
 " Lord Chesterfield could indulge himself in making any sort 
 of pun at a time. Dr. Barnard, now Bishop of Killaloe, was 
 standing by his lordship in the pump-room at Bath, when the 
 late Duchess of Northumberland's father was brought in a chair 
 very unwieldy. The musick was playing. My lord said to 
 Barnard, ' We have a new sort of instrument this morning — 
 a dull Seymour* (dulcimer).'" 
 
 From Dr. Barnard, London, 1781. 
 
 " Parnellf was miserably addicted to drinking. He could not 
 refrain even the morning that Swift introduced him to Lord 
 Oxford.^ My lord pressed through the crowd to get to Parnell. 
 But he soon perceived his situation. He in a little said to 
 Swift, * your friend, I fear, is not very well.' Swift answered, ' He 
 is troubled with a great shaking.' ' I am sorry,' said the Earl, ' that 
 he should have such a distemper, but especially that it should 
 attack him in the morning.' " 
 
 From Dr. Barnard, Bishop of Killaloe, 
 who had it from Dr. Delany. 
 
 * Algernon Seymour, who succeeded his mother in 1722 as Baron 
 Percy, and in 1748 inherited the Dukedom of Somerset. His only 
 child, Lady Elizabeth Seymour, became Duchess of JS'orthumbcrland. 
 
 t Thomas ParneU, D.D., author of " The Hermit " and other poems, 
 was an Irish clergyman, and a friend of Swift, who bestowed on hiiu 
 a share of his patronage. Early inclined to the excessive use of wine, 
 he latterly became an habitual drunkard. He died in July, 1718, in 
 his thirty-ninth year. 
 
 X Eobert Harley, Earl of Oxford, Lord High Treasurer, was a 
 steady promoter of men of letters. His career forms an unportant 
 part of the political history of England. He died 21st INIay, 1721. 
 The Harleian Collection of books and MSS. in the British Museum 
 is a monument of his learning and industry.
 
 298 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " In spring, 1781, Dr. Franklin* wrote from Paris to a freind in 
 London, with indignation against one who had been entrusted 
 with money belonging to the American prisoners, and had run 
 off with it. One expression in his letters was singularly- 
 strong, and indeed wild : — ' If that fell5w is not damned, it is not 
 worth while to keep a devil.' " Mk. SuAKD.f 
 
 " Lord Foley, |whose extravagance frequently brought his credi- 
 tors upon him so as to have executions in his house, was rally- 
 ing George Selwyn on his particular curiosity for spectacles of 
 death. ' You go,' said he, ' I understand, to see all executions.' 
 
 * No my lord,' answered George, ' I don't go to see your 
 executions.'" Mk. Suard. 
 
 "The Honourable Mrs. Stuart § was one day talking to me 
 with just severity against drunkenness (the sin which doth most 
 easily beset me). I attempted to apologise, and said that 
 intoxication might happen at a time to any man. ' Yes,' said 
 she, ' to any man but a Scotsman, for what with another man is 
 an accident is in him a habit.' " 
 
 "At Sir John Dick's, Sunday, 8th May, 1785, I made the 
 gentlemen sit and drink out some capital old hock after the 
 ladies left us. When I came into the drawing-room, and was 
 seated by the lady of Sir Matthew White Eidley,|l she said to me, 
 'We ladies don't like you when you have drunk a bottle of hock, 
 because you then tell us only plain truth.' ' Bravo ! ' cried I ; 
 
 * Lady Eidley, this shall go into my Bosiuelliana. It is one of 
 
 * The great Dr. Benjamin Franklin, born 1706, died 1790. 
 
 f Jean Baptiste Antoine Suard published " Varietes Litteraires " 
 and " Melanges de Litterature." He was born 16th January, 1750, 
 and died 20th July, 1817. 
 
 X Thomas, second Lord Foley, died 8th January, 1766. 
 
 § See supra, p. 97. 
 
 II Sir Matthew White-Eidley, Bart., M.P. for jSTewcastle-on-Tyne, 
 married, 12th July, 1777, Sarah, daughter and heiress of Benjamin 
 Colborne, Esq., of Bath. Lady White Eidley died 3rd August, 
 1806.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 299 
 
 the best Ion mots I have heard for a long time. It goes deep 
 into human nature/ " 
 
 "M. D'AukerviUe (9th May, 1785) at General Paoli's paid 
 me the compliment that I was the man of genius who had the 
 best heart he had ever known," 
 
 " The king cannot give to Langton because he is not in the 
 political sphere. He cannot take a handful of the gold upon 
 the faro table, and give it to any man, however worthy, who is 
 only looking on or stalking round the room. Let him play, let 
 him part, and take his chance. The king is but the marker 
 at the great billiard-table of the state. He can mark a man 
 three, four, or five, or whatever number according to his play, and 
 if he goes off the table into opposition, can rub out the chalk ; 
 like the marker, he can give what money he has for himself as 
 he pleases, and employ his own tailor or shoemaker, and buy his 
 own snufif and ballads, take a walk or a ride at his idle hours 
 where he pleases." 
 
 " The first time Suard saw Burke, who was at Eeynolds's, 
 Johnson touched him on the shoulder and said, 'Le grande 
 Burke.' " 
 
 " My journal is ready ; it is in the larder, only to be sent 
 to the kitchen, or perhaps trussed and larded a little." 
 
 " Mrs. Cos way* said she had often expressed a wish to see 
 me. General (Paoli) did not tell me this. He has been affraid 
 of making me too vain and turning the head of his freind. No, 
 he knows the value of things — it was not worth telling." 
 
 "At Mr. Aubrey's, 19th April, Wilkes and I hard at it. I 
 warm on monarchy. ' Po, your'n old Tory.' Bosiodl. ' And 
 you're a new Tory. Let that stand for that.' " 
 
 * Nee Miss Hadfield, born at Leghorn, of English parents. She 
 married Richard Cosway, R.A., and shared her husband's reputation 
 as an artist. Her musical soirees, at which she was pri7na donna, were 
 much resorted to by persons of rank and fashion.
 
 300 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " I mentioned my having been in Tothill Fields Bridewell ; 
 how the keeper had let me in, &c. Wilkes, 'I don't wonder at 
 your getting in, but that you got out.' Bos. ' no, I have no 
 propensity to be a jail-bird ; 1 never had the honour you have 
 had * [he looking a little disconcerted, as the pill rather too 
 strong] — I mean being Lord Mayor of London ; I mean the 
 golden chain. I never had the honour to have a chain of any 
 sort.'" 
 
 " ' I'll have some of the other soup too. Were there a hundred 
 soups, I should eat of them all.' Mrs. Aubrey (very pleasantly) : 
 * I am sorry ours comes so far short of your number.' " 
 
 " Old Huttont talked of men of phlegm and men of fancy. 
 Said H., ' Men of phlegm punish the beef, the solid parts of 
 dinner ; men of fancy, the dessert.' ' Sir,' said I, ' men of fancy 
 would have nothing to work upon were there not men of phlegm. 
 Men of phlegm perform the actions, compile the histories, dis- 
 cover the arts and sciences upon which poetry is founded.' " 
 
 " Dr. Burney J said he hoped I was now come to plant myself 
 in London. ' I'll bring the watering pan,' said he." 
 
 "I told Lord GaUoway,§ April, 1785, that I called Lord Daer 
 
 * Wilkes was in 17G3 imprisoned in the Tower on the charge of 
 sedition. In 1774 he was elected Lord Mayor of London. 
 
 t Probably James Hutton, M.D., author of " The Plutonic Theory 
 of the Earth." He was born in 1726, and may have been styled 
 Old Hutton to distinguish him from Charles Hutton, the eminent 
 mathematician, who was born in 1737. 
 
 X Charles Burney, Mus.D., author of " The General History of 
 IMusic," and other works. He was an intimate friend of Dr. Johnson, 
 wlio confessedly prepared his " Tour to the Hebrides " after the model 
 of Dr. Burney 's *' Continental Travels." Dr. Burney was born at 
 Shrewsbury, on the 7th April, 1726, and died at Chelsea, 12th April, 
 1814. 
 
 § John, seventh Earl of Galloway, K.P., one of the lords of the 
 bedchamber to George III. In 179G he was created a peer of Great 
 Britain by the title of Baron Stewart of Garhes. He died 13th 
 November, 1806.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 301 
 
 Darius* 'What,' said he, 'do you think him the son of 
 Cyrus ? ' laughing at Lord Selkirk. I did not think he'd have 
 said this, though a distinguished law lord." 
 
 " When Pitt the second made his first appearance in the 
 House of Commons in opposition to Fox, Gibbon-f- said, ' There 
 is a beautiful painted pinnace just going to be run down by a 
 black collier.' He never was more mistaken. Pitt has more 
 forcible indignation in him than Fox." Wilkes. 
 
 " As a playful instance of the proverb, I said, ' Every man lias 
 his price. Lord Shelburne ^ has his price [meaning Dr. l*ricc],§ 
 whom I love and call Pretium affedionis' " 
 
 Monday, 18th April, 1785, at 
 Dr. Brocklesby's.|1 
 
 " General Paoli said more good things than almost anybody, 
 yet he talks of them with contempt. I told him he had always 
 
 * John, Lord Daer, third son of Dunbar Hamilton Douglas, fourth 
 Earl of Selkirk. 
 
 t The celebrated Edward Gibbon was born in 1737, and died in 
 1794. In conversation he was genial and elegant, but he occasionally 
 indulged in flashes of irony. 
 
 % William, second Earl of Shelburne, subsequently Marquess of 
 Lansdown, a distinguished statesman. In 1782 he succeeded the 
 Marquess of Rockingham as Prime Minister. At one period he much 
 frequented the society of Dr. Johnson. The Marquess died in May, 
 1805. 
 
 § Richard Price, D.D,, a Dissenting minister in London, and eminent 
 philosophical writer, was born in 1723, and died in March, 1791. 
 Dr. Price was a friend and correspondent of Lord Shelburne. An 
 advocate of civil and religious liberty, he supported the cause of 
 American independence, and welcomed the early triumphs of tlie 
 French Revolution. 
 
 11 Dr. Brocklesby, an accomplished physician, and the generous 
 friend of Edmund Burke and Dr. Johnson. He published various 
 periodical papers on professional subjects. Dr. Brocklesby was born 
 in 1702, and died 1797.
 
 302 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 hon mots about him, which he used like footballs — he threw 
 them down and gave them a kick." 24th April, 1785. 
 
 " April, 1785, at Mr. Osborne's. Sir Joseph Banks told me he 
 was sure he had a soul. He felt it high witliin him, as a woman 
 does a child." 
 
 "25th April, 1785. Dining on guard with Colonel Lord 
 Cathcart,* Cataline was mentioned. * Who was he ? ' said 
 George t Hanger, ' for I know no ancient history.' ' I'll tell 
 you what he was,' said Colonel Tarleton, ' Alieni cupidus, 
 sui profusus.' ' Very fair ! ' said Hanger. In a little talking of 
 fellows going carelessly to execution, Tarleton said, ' We're told 
 Sir Thomas More smiled all the way.' " 
 
 " Mrs. Heron J being at her parish church, the name of the 
 minister being Stot,§ as it was a very bad day, and the wind 
 and rain were driving through the windows, a lady observed that 
 it was like a guarde mange. ' I think so too, madam,' said she ; 
 ' but if that were the case I should think it would be better to 
 have a dead stot than a living one.' " From herself. 
 
 " Houstoun Stewart Ij was one night in Drury Lane playhouse 
 very shabbily dressed. A surly-looking, boorish fellow comes 
 up to him : ' Pray, sir, whose seat do you keep ? ' Houstoun 
 
 * William Schaw, tenth Baron and first Earl Cathcart, born 1755, 
 died 16th June, 1843. 
 
 t Colonel George Hanger, an eccentric writer and clever humorist, 
 served in the American war. He subsequently resided in London, 
 where his society was cherished by the Prince of Wales, afterwards 
 George IV. Several works from his pen are full of whimsicality. 
 He succeeded his brother ui 1814 as fourth Lord Colerauie, but 
 refused to accept the title. He died in 1824, aged seventy-four. 
 
 X Mrs. Heron, of Heron, Wigtonshire. 
 
 § Rev. Ebenezer Stott, minister of Monigaff, Wigtonshire. He was 
 ordained in 1748, and died 17th September, 1788. 
 
 II Houstoun Stewart, second son of Sir Michael Stewart, Bart., 
 of Blackball, succeeded to the entailed estate of Carnock, Stirhng- 
 shire, when he assumed the name of Nicolson.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 303 
 
 replied with an ironical complaisance, ' Yours, sir.' As he was 
 rising the fellow observed his sword, was much confused, and 
 asked ten thousand pardons. ' From this,' says Stewart, ' we see 
 the value of a sword. Had I wanted it I might have been taken 
 for a real footman.' " Mr. G. Goldie. 
 
 " A comical fellow was telling that Eaploch sat upon turkey 
 eggs and brought out birds, which made the company laugh 
 extremely. 'Stay, stay, gentlemen!' says Harry Barclay^* 
 ' you don't know that these turkeys are all my cousins german, 
 for Eaploch is my uncle.' " Lady Kames.I 
 
 " A gentleman was one night talking of the Nile. An ignorant 
 boobie who was present asked him with great eagerness, * Pray, 
 what fellow was that ? ' ' Why, troth, sir,' says he, 'it was a 
 fellow that took a conceit to hide his head so that it could not 
 be found again.' " Mrs. Heron. 
 
 "A dog one day jumped upon Miss Bruce ^ of Kinross's lap 
 at a tea-table. ' I wonder,' says she, ' if dogs can see anythinfr 
 particularly agreeable about me ? ' ' Indeed, madam,' replied a 
 gentleman, ' he would be a very sad dog that did not.' " 
 
 Mrs. G. Goldie. 
 
 " Mr. Heron § was one day reproving a servant at table for 
 negligence. * What have you been thinking of, Peter, that you 
 
 * Harry Barclay, of CoUairnie, Fifeshire. 
 
 f In 1741, Henry Home, Lord Kames, married Miss Agatha Drum- 
 mond, only daughter of the proprietor of Blair-Drummond, Perthshire, 
 who, on the death of her brother in 1766. succeeded to the paternal 
 estate. Her proper designation was Mrs. Hume Drummond, of Blair- 
 Drummond. 
 
 J Anne, only surviving daughter of Sir William Bruce, Bart., of 
 Kinross, and heiress of his estates. She married, first, Sir Tliomas 
 Hope, Bart., of CraighaU ; and secondly, Sir Jolui Carstairs, of 
 Kilconquhar, and had issue by both marriages. 
 
 § Patrick Heron, Esq., M.P.
 
 304 BOSWELLIANA, 
 
 have forgot spoons ? ' ' I suppose, my dear,' says his lady, ' that 
 he has been thinking of knives and forks.' " I was present. 
 
 " We are apt to imagine that the Turks are a brutal sort of 
 people, totally given up to gross sensuality, and altogether void 
 of gay fancy or the finer feelings. As an instance to the con- 
 trary, my Lord Galloway tells that he was sitting at Constanti- 
 nople with a Turkish gentleman, who, although a true Mussulman 
 took a glass of wine. The custom there is not for a company 
 to drink all at once, like a regiment going through their evolu- 
 tions, but as the intention of drinking is to cheer the spirits, 
 they take a cup of the liquor which stands before them just as 
 they feel themselves in need of it. This Turk, after having, 
 taken three or four bumpers of champagne, pointed to a lamp 
 which hung above their heads, as they never use candles. ' This,' 
 says he, ' my lord, is to me as the oil is to that lamp.' A pretty 
 allusion, as if it lighted him up." Lord Kenmore.* 
 
 " My lord having shown to the same gentleman a picture of 
 Lady Garlies,t he looked at it a long time very attentively, and 
 then asked my lord, with a good deal of emotion, whose picture 
 it was. My lord answered that it was the picture of his lady, 
 who had died just before he left his native country. ' My lord,' 
 said the Turk, ' you have the strongest constitution, and have a 
 chance to live longer than any man I ever met with.' And being 
 asked his reason for saying so, ' Because, my lord, you have 
 been able to survive so fine a woman.' A noble expression of a 
 feeling heart." Lord Kenmore. 
 
 " Silinger, a gentleman of Ireland, remarkable for humour 
 and spirit, had got himself drunk one night, and had broke 
 
 * John, tenth Viscouut Kenmure. Died 21st September, 1824, 
 He was Vice-Lieutenant of Kirkcudbrightshire. 
 
 t Jolm, seventh Earl of Galloway, had as his first wife Charlotte 
 Mary, daughter of Francis, first Earl of Warwick. He bore by 
 courtesy the title of Lord Garlies before succeeding his father as 
 Earl in 1773.
 
 BOSWELLIAJSA. 305 
 
 windows in St. James's Street. Next morning at White's they 
 were all talking of and abusing him most confoundedly. Lord 
 Coke * a most worthless fellow, stood up with great warmth for 
 Mr. Silinger, who a little after came in ! ' Silinger,' cried my 
 lord, ' you are much obliged to me this morning, for I have been 
 losing my character in defence of yours.' ' Have you so, my 
 lord ? ' says he, ' then you are much obliged to me, for you have 
 lost the worst character in all England.' " 
 
 Mr. Murray, of Broughtoun. 
 
 " Colonel Chartres,j- who knew mankind too well to be igno- 
 rant of the power of flattery, said to John,+ Duke of Argyle, 
 'Good heaven, my lord, what would I give to have your character ! 
 
 * Edward, Viscount Coke, eldest son of the Earl of Leicester. He 
 married Lady Mary Campbell, daughter and co-heiress of John, Duke 
 of Argyll and Greenwich, and died s. p. in 1753. 
 
 f Pope has thus described the character of this noted libertine : — 
 " Francis Chartres, a man infamous for all manner of vices. When 
 he was an ensign in the army, he was drummed out of the regiment 
 for a cheat ; he was next banished to Brussels, and drummed out of 
 Ghent on the same account. After a hundred tricks at the gaming- 
 tables, he took to lending money at exorbitant interest and on great 
 penalties, accumulating premium, interest, and capital into a new 
 capital, and seizing to a minute when the payments became due. In 
 a word, by a constant attention to the vices, wants, and foUies of man- 
 kind, he acquired an immense fortune. He was twice condemned for 
 rapes and pardoned, but the last time not without iruprisonment in 
 Newgate, and large confiscations. He died in Scotland in 1731 
 (February, 1732). The populace at his funeral raised a great riot, 
 almost tore the body out of the coffin, and cast dead dogs into the 
 orave along with it." Arbuthnot's epitaph on Colonel Chartres is 
 celebrated for its epigrammatic force. 
 
 X John, Duke of Argyll and Greenwich, celebrated as a statesman 
 and military commander, is immortalized in these lines of Pope, — 
 " Argyll, the state's whole thunder born to wield, 
 And shake alike the senate and the field." 
 The Duke was born in 1678, and died in 1743. 
 
 X
 
 306 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 I would give ten thousand pounds.' ' Indeed, Chartres,' replied the 
 duke, * it would be the worst bargain you ever made, for you 
 would lose it again in a day.' " Loed KjuiIES. 
 
 " A gentleman was one day making that common serious 
 reflection, ' Time runs.' ' Very well,' replied Boswell, ' let it run 
 there, for I am sure I shall never try to pursue it.' " 
 
 "Lady Katie Murray* having shown her full-length portrait 
 to Lord Eglintoune, ' such vanity, such vanity ! ' cried he, 
 ' do you really take that for you ? ' ' Indeed, my lord,' says she, 
 Mr. Eeynolds says that it is me ; so I can't help it.' " 
 
 From herself. 
 
 " Colonel Folly came to wait upon old Jerviswood,t who was 
 very deaf; and being very fiuically dressed, the old gentleman 
 asked with great curiosity, ' Who's that ? who's that ? ' and 
 being answered, Colonel Folly, ' I see,' says he, ' he's a fool, but 
 what is his name ? ' " Loed Auchinleck. 
 
 Sir Alexander Dick passed an evening at Eome with a 
 number of gentlemen, who had been obliged to fly Scotland on 
 account of the rebellion, 1715. One of them sung ' The Broom 
 of the Cowdenknowes,'J with which the whole company were 
 so much affected as to burst into tears and cry with great 
 bitterness.' ' From himself 
 
 * Lady Catherine Murray was elder daughter of William, third 
 Earl of Dunmore. 
 
 t George Baillie of Jerviswoode and Mellerstain. His great-grand- 
 son, George BaiLlie Hamilton, became tenth Earl of Haddington. 
 
 I There are several versions of this song. The oldest has this 
 opening stanza : — 
 
 " How blithe, ilk morn, was I to see 
 My swain come o'er the hill ! 
 He skipt the burn and fleAv to me ; 
 
 I met him with good-will. 
 Oh the brume, the bonnie, bonnie brume ! 
 
 The brume o' the Cowdenknowcs ! 
 I wish I were with my dear swain, 
 "With his pipe and my yowes."
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 307 
 
 "When John MuKie* was in Prussia, one of the sentinels 
 petitioned him and some other gentlemen who were with him 
 for their charity to a poor Briton, who had been seized by the 
 advanced guards while in the Dutch service, and had now but 
 very poor pay. ' Pray, sir/ said Mr. McKie, ' wljat is your 
 name?' 'John McKie, sir,' said he, 'from the Laird of 
 Balgowan's estate, in the parish of Monigaff, in Galloway.' 
 Surprised and pleased at the discovery, they collected all the 
 silver they had about them and threw to him." 
 
 Sir Egbert Maxwell, 3rd hand. 
 
 " Jerviswood carried his whole family to travel with him 
 through Italy. The first night of their being in Pome they went 
 to an assembly, and were surprised to find them dancing to the 
 tune of ' The Lads of Dunse.' The history of the thing was 
 this : — the Italians have no country dances ; but Miss Edwin, 
 sister to Lady Charlotte's husband, was very fond of the Scots 
 country dances, and as her family were opulent people when 
 they were abroad, she had influence enough with the Italians 
 to introduce these dances, which they still remain fond of." 
 
 Lord Kames. 
 
 "It is a tradition believed in the family of Carnwathf that 
 one of the old earls, who was a very zealous Catholic, took it 
 into his head to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre. As 
 he was entering one of the gates of Constantinople he saw a 
 woman sitting on a balcony spinning and singing, ' the 
 broom,' &c." Lord Kenmore.+ 
 
 " A man had heard that Dempster was very clever, and there- 
 fore expected that he could say nothing but good things. Being 
 brought acquainted, Mr. Dempster said to him with much 
 
 * John McKie, of Bargaly, in the stewardry of Kirkcudbright. His 
 grandson, who bore the same Christian name, was many years I\I.P. 
 for the stewardry. 
 
 t Probably Sir Eobert Dalzell, first Earl of Carnwath. 
 
 l John, eighth Viscount Kenmure.
 
 308 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 politeness, ' I hope, sir, your lady and family are well.' ' Ay, 
 ay, man,' said he, ' pray where is the great wit in that speech ? ' " 
 
 Lady Ann Erskine. 
 
 "A gentleman was complaining that he had done good to 
 another who had made him no grateful return. ' Well, well,' 
 said Boswell, ' you are so far lucky, that if you did good to your 
 neighbour you have your reward, whether he will or not.' " 
 
 " Boswell and John Home met with a man in their walk one 
 morning, who said that he was a hundred and three. ' What 
 a stupid fellow,' said Boswell, 'must that be who has lived so 
 long ! ' " 
 
 " Boswell was one day complaining that he was sometimes 
 dull. * Yes, yes,' cried Lord Kames, ' aliquando dormitat 
 Ilomerus' (Homer sometimes nods). Boswell being too much 
 elated with this, my lord added, 'Indeed, sir, it is the only 
 chance you had of resembling Homer.' " 
 
 " A countryman came one day and told Lady Machermore,* 
 ' Oh, madam, you have lost a great enemy this morning — the 
 auld bear of Kirouch tree's dead.' 'Ay, ay,' says she, 'the auld 
 Heron dead ? give the honest man a dram.' The fellow took his 
 dram very contentedly, and then said, 'Na, God be thanked, 
 madam, Heron's not dead, for I mean the old boar- sow that 
 used to destroy your potatoes.' " Mr. Heron. 
 
 "At an execution in the Grass Mercat, Boswell was observing 
 that if you will consider it abstractly there is nothing terrible 
 in it. ' No doubt, sir,' replied Mr. Love, ' if you will abstract 
 everything terrible that it has about it, nothing terrible will 
 remain.' " 
 
 " When Lord Galloway was in Constantinople, an old Turk of 
 sixty was dining one day with a company of the English, with 
 
 * Mrs. Dunbar, of Mackermore, whose estate in the parish of 
 Momiigaff, Kirkcudbrightshire, bordered that of Mr. Heron of Heron.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 309 
 
 whose ease and freedom and mirth he was so much transported 
 as to exclaim, ' Good God, am I come to this age, and have 
 lived hut one day ! ' » Lord Galloway. 
 
 "Lord Mark Ker * was playing at backgammon with Lord 
 Stair in a coffee-house in London; an impudent fellow was 
 saying some rude things against Scotland. ' Come, my Lord 
 Stair,' said Lord Mark, ' let us have a throw of the dice, which 
 of us two kicks this scoundrel down-stau-s.' Lord Stair had the 
 highest throw, and accordingly used the fellow as he deserved. 
 ' Well,' said Lord Mark, ' I allways am unlucky at play.' " 
 
 LOKD AUCHINLECK. 
 
 Montgomerie, f of Skermorly, was Provost of Glasgow. A 
 vain, haughty man, Jacobie Corbet, t a merchant, and a noted 
 man for humour, accosted him one day in the familiar style of 
 ' How are you, Hugh ? ' ' Hugh, sir ? ' said he, ' is that a proper 
 way of talking to the Lord Provost of Glasgow ? — Officer, take 
 this fellow to prison directly.' It was accordingly done. Some 
 time after commissions for justices of the peace came down, and 
 
 amongst the rest was one for Montgomerie, of Skermorly. 
 
 ' Ay,' said he, ' this is pretty odd. I should think the Queen 
 might have been better acquainted with my name.' ' Indeed,' 
 replied Corbet, ' I dare say she remembered your name, but she 
 
 * Lord Mark Ker was fourth son of the first Marquess of Lothian, 
 a distmguished military otficer ; lie was wounded at the battle of 
 Almauza, 25th April, 1707 ; he acted as brigadier-general at the 
 capture of Vigo. lu January, 1745, he was appointed Governor of 
 Edinburgh Castle. He died 2nd February, 1752. 
 
 t Hugh Montgomerie, a prosperous merchant in Glasgow, and Lord 
 Provost of the city, succeeded his uncle as fourth baronet of Skermorly. 
 He became M.P. for Glasgow, and was a commissioner for the Treaty 
 of Union. He died in 1735. 
 
 X James Corbet, merchant in Glasgow, rejoiced in tracing liis 
 descent from Eoger Corbet (Eoger the Ptaven), who came from Xor- 
 mandy with Wilham the Conqueror. Till lately the family of Corbet 
 possessed lands in Clydesdale.
 
 310 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 knew that if she called you Hugh she would have got the 
 Tolbooth.'" Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 "When Campbell,* of Shawfield, returned with all his riches 
 to Glasgow, everybody flocked about him to pay their respects 
 except Corbet, with whom he had served his apprenticeship, 
 who never troubled his head or went near him. Shawfield, 
 concerned at this, and willing to ingratiate himself with every- 
 body, came up to him as he was walking before his shop. ' Oh, 
 my good old friend, Jacobie Corbet, I rejoice to see you. I pro- 
 test I know no odds upon you these twenty years.' * Say you so, 
 Daniel ? ' cried he, 'but I know a very great odds upon you ; you 
 came here at first wanting bretches, and now you are riding a 
 coach and six.' " Lord Auchinleck. 
 
 "Colonel Irwin-j- was dancing down a country dance at Bath, 
 when somebody said, * I hope Mrs. Irwin is well.' The colonel, 
 dancing on, bowed and smiled and replied, ' Dead a fortnight, 
 — dead a fortnight.' " Lord Kelly. 
 
 " Sanderson, the Quaker, and Lady Galloway, had a violent 
 dispute about religion. ' Well, well, Catherine,'! said he, ' you 
 have but an Act of Parliament for your religion ; I have the same 
 for mine.' " Lord Galloway. 
 
 " Lady Garlics § was making a cap to herself one evening. 
 
 * David Campbell, first of Shawfield, second son of Walter Camp- 
 bell, Captain of Skipness, made a fortune abroad, and was elected 
 M.P. for Glasgow ; he was a commissioner in the Treaty of Union. 
 
 t Colonel John Irving, pronounced Irwin, of the family of Irving, 
 of Logan, served in the Madras army, and became lieutenant-colonel 
 of the Dumfriesshire militia. 
 
 i Catherine, second wife of Alexander, sixth Earl of Galloway 
 was youngest daughter of John, fourth Earl of Dundonald. 
 
 § This gentlewoman was second wife of John, Lord Garlics, sub- 
 sequently seventh Earl of Galloway. She was daughter of Sir James 
 Dashwood, Bart., and was married to Lord Garlics in 17C4. Her 
 ladyship died in 1830.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 311 
 
 Says old Galloway, with much slyness, ' If you were a milliner, 
 madam, you would have plenty of business.' ' Yes,' said Garlies, 
 one way or t'other.' " I was present. 
 
 " A young extravagant dog had contrived to swell his bills 
 prodigiously, and among other articles he had this: — 'To an 
 entertainment to my friends the night before I left Oxford, £40.' 
 'My dear Tom/ said his father, 'I rejoice to find you so 
 fortunate a man, for by what I can see you have a greater 
 number of friends than any man in England.' " 
 
 Mr. Allan Whitefoord.* 
 
 " A company of strolling players were rehearsing ' Macbeth/ 
 and singing the chorus of ' We fly by night.' ' Oh,' cried the 
 landlord, who overheard them, ' I'U take care of that ; ' and 
 immediately called a constable to lay hold of them." 
 
 Mr. Love. 
 
 " As Lord Mark Ker was going one night to pay a visit, one 
 of his chairmen jostled a gentleman upon the street, who 
 immediately knocked him down. Lord Mark came out of his 
 chair, and as the fellow recovered himself, he desired the gentle- 
 man to chastise him for his insolence, which he declined. ' Why, 
 then, sir,' said Lord Mark, ' you will excuse me for taking notice 
 of you for knocking down my chairman/ and caned him most 
 heartily." Lord Galloway. 
 
 "Sir William Maxwell of Springkellf said that Lord Fife J 
 and Miss Willy § Maxwell resembled one another, for they had 
 both bought their titles dear enough." I was present. 
 
 * Son of Sir Adam Whitefoord, Bart., of Blairquhan, Ayrshire. 
 The baronetcy is extinct. 
 
 t Sir William Maxwell, third baronet of Springkell; born 3 1st 
 December, 1739 ; died 4th March, 1804. 
 
 + The earldom of Fife was renewed in the person of William DulF 
 of Braco, who in 1727 was elected M.P. for the county of Banff. In 
 1735 he was created Baron Braco of Kilbryde, and was raised to the 
 Earldom of Fife in 1759. He died 30th September, 1763. 
 
 § The reference is probably to Miss Jane Maxwell, second daughter
 
 312 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " Whenever a young man was recommended to old Lord 
 Stormont* for one of his kirks, he used allways to ask, ' Is he 
 good-natured in his drink ? ' and if that was the case he said he 
 should be his man." Sir John Douglas. 
 
 "Lady Elibankf was regretting that old families should sink. 
 Sir William Baird of JSTewbyth,! an ugly-looking dog, was 
 there, who laughed and said, 'What is all that stuff about 
 old families ? All nonsense ! I should be glad to know who is 
 the representative of Nebuchadnezzar's family ? ' This Lord 
 Elibank, then a boy, replied, 'You, sir, and he got you 
 when he was eating grass with the beasts of the field.' " 
 
 Sir William Maxwell. 
 
 "At a hunters' meeting at Dumfries, Mr. Eiddle§ of Glenriddle 
 came up to the Duke of Hamilton, || with his hand in his coat 
 pocket. ' Will your Grace crack any walnuts ? ' The duke, 
 who had lost his teeth, took it as an affront, and was very 
 sulky." Sir William Maxwell. 
 
 " When this story was told, somebody said, ' That's nuts for 
 B[oswell]."' 
 
 of Sir William MaxAvell, Bart., of Monreith, who married, in 17G7, 
 Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon. The Duchess was celebrated for 
 her beauty and wit. 
 
 * David, sixth Lord Stormont, died 1748. 
 
 t Apparently the dowager of Alexander, fourth Baron Elibank, 
 daughter of George Stirling, surgeon, Edinburgh, 
 
 X Sir William Baird, Bart., of Newbyth, succeeded his cousin Sir 
 John Baird in 1746. 
 
 § Eobert Riddell, head of an old Dumfriesshire family, was pre- 
 decessor of Robert Riddell of Glenriddell, the antiquary and an active 
 jnitron of Robert Burns. 
 
 II James, sixth Duke of Hamilton. He married Elizabeth, one of 
 the three beautiful Misses Gunning, who on his death espoused John, 
 fifth Duke of Argyle. The Duke of Hamilton died on the 18th 
 January, 1 758, in his thirty-fourth year.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 313 
 
 "When Sir Peter Frazer of Doras* brought home his lady 
 to the Highlands, he said to his English coachman, ' All these 
 hills are mine, John.' ' Indeed, sir,' said he, * they're all not 
 worth a groat. I would not take off my hat and thank God 
 Almighty for all this part of the creation. Just as he spoke the 
 coach overturned.' " Sir William Maxwell. 
 
 When Lord Hyndfordf was ambassador at the court of Berlin, 
 the King of Prussia said to him one morning at the levee, ' Do 
 you know, my lord, that two of my soldiers have this morniug 
 died of the English distemper ? they have hanged themselves.' 
 'True, sire,' replied Lord Hyndford; 'but it was for a very 
 different reason. Suicide amongst our people is occasioned by 
 an over-fulness ; but I am told that these fellows hanged them- 
 selves because they were dying of hunger.' " 
 
 Lord Auciiinleck. 
 
 "Lord Dunmore:j: was telling Lord Cassillis§ that his little 
 child was beginning to speak, and could allready say Dun. 
 * Well, my lord,' eaid he, ' it will say more by and by." 
 
 From himself 
 
 " Colonel Murray was imposing on some ignorant young 
 fellow at play. Lord Mark Ker, said nobody but a scoundrel 
 and a villain would do so. Murray came to Lord INIark, and 
 asked him if he had said so. ' Sir,' said he, ' to the best of my 
 remembrance these were my words. I am not siu'e but I like- 
 wise added rascal.' " Sir W. Maxwell. 
 
 * Eepresentative of Sir Alexander Eraser of Durris, Avho was 
 created a baronet in 1673. The baronetcy is extinct, 
 
 f John, third Earl of Hyndford, was in 1741 appointed envoy 
 extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the King of Prussia. He died 
 19th July, 1767, aged sixty-seven. 
 
 :j: John, fourth Earl of Dunmore. His eldest son, George, Viscount 
 Eincastle, was born on the 30th April, 1762. The Earl died in March, 
 1809. 
 
 § Thomas, ninth Earl of Cassilis. Died 30th ]S'ovember 1775.
 
 314 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " A fellow was swearing most terribly in a coffee-house. 
 Colonel Forrester;' came up to him. ' Pray sir,' what entitles 
 you to swear and blaspheme at this rate ? ' Eh, colonel,' said 
 he, ' What ! are you reproving me for it ? I'm sure you used to 
 swear as much as any man.' 'Yes sir,' said he, 'when it was 
 the fashion. But now it is only practised by porters and 
 chairmen. I left it off as below a gentleman.' " 
 
 Me, Goldie, of Hoddam. 
 
 " Cosmo Alexander* the painter, upon a slight acquaintance 
 with a Eoman Catholic lady, took her out to dance in the Edin- 
 burgh assembly, and as he was figuring away in black velvet 
 with various gesticulations, ' Lord Elibank,' asked Sir William 
 Maxwell, ' who's that who dances ? ' Being told Mr. Alexander 
 the painter, ' Upon my word,' said his lordship, * a very pic- 
 turesque minuet.' " Sir William Maxwell. 
 
 " The Duke of Newcastle f had a very mixed character, was not 
 deficient in parts, but was remarkable for being inattentive, 
 confused, and hurried. Lord Cliesterfield said he was like a 
 man who had lost half an hour in the morning, and was running 
 about all the day, in order to find it again." Lord Kames. 
 
 " Lady , a woman of low birth, whose father and uncle had 
 
 both been strung at Tyburn, asked George Selwyn;]: to come 
 and see an elegant room which she was fitting up at her house 
 in Pall Mall. George, observing some vacant places for pictures, 
 inquired what she was to put there. She said she intended to 
 
 * Probably a brother of John Alexander, the celebrated painter. 
 Jolin Alexander studied his art chiefly in Florence ; he retiu^ned to 
 Scotland in 1720, and thereafter chiefly resided in Gordon Castle, 
 under the patronage of tlie Duchess of Gordon. 
 
 t Henry, second Duke of jS'ewcastle. His Grace died in 1794. 
 
 J George Selwyn, M.P., the celebrated humorist, was born in 
 1719, and died 25th January, 1791, ("Sir George Selwyn and his 
 Contemporaries," by J. H. Pope, 1843.)
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 315 
 
 hang some family pictures there. ' 0, madam/ replied he, ' I 
 thought all your ladyship's family had been hanged already.' " 
 
 Captain Erskine. 
 
 " The Laird of Macfarlane* was maintaining one day that the 
 highlands was much better country than Fii'e, and that Kelly 
 Law would make no figure among the hills in his country, ' I 
 grant you,' said Captain Erskine, 'it would make but a con- 
 temptible figure as a hill, but it would make an admirable 
 plain.' " From Captain Erskine. 
 
 " An Irish servant told his master that his best horse had 
 fallen over a precipice. ' Well,' said he, ' there is no help for it ; 
 let us at least save something ; go directly and skin him, and 
 come quickly back.' The fellow, being very long of returning, 
 was asked what he had been about. ' An't please your honour,' 
 said he, ' the horse run so fast, that it was three hours before I 
 could overtake him to get the skin off.' " 
 
 Lady Bett? Macfarlane. f 
 
 " The same gentleman sent his servant one dark night with a 
 friend to conduct him through a bad step in the road. His 
 friend feU into the very middle of the mire. The servant being 
 asked upon his return if he had shown the gentleman the hole, 
 ' Indeed sir,' said he, ' he did not need to be shown it, for he 
 found it himself.' " Lady Betty Macfarlane. 
 
 "A countryman was carrying a hare over his shoulder in the 
 streets. A waggish young fellow accosted him thus : — ' Pray sir, 
 is that your own hare, or a wig ? ' " Captain Erskine. 
 
 * "Walter Macfarlane, of that ilk, descended from the old Earls of 
 Lennox, was an accomplished antiquary and ingenious genealogist. 
 He died at Edinburgh, on the 5th June, 1767. His valuable MSS. 
 were acquired by the Faculty of Advocates. 
 
 t Lady Elizabeth Macfarlane, wife of Walter Macfarlane, of that 
 ilk, was eldest daughter of Alexander, fifth Earl of KelHe. She 
 married, secondly, Alexander, eighth Lord Colville, of Culross, and 
 died in 1794.
 
 316 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " When Mr. Love was engaged for Druiy Lane, he went to 
 Covent Garden and saw Shuter* play Falstaff the night before 
 he appeared in that character himself. After the play was over, 
 Mr. Shuter said, * He has satisfied me very mnch — because he 
 satisfied nobody else.' " From himself. 
 
 " The Duke de Nivernois -f- is a man of fine parts and address, 
 but a very diminutive figure. When he made his appearance in 
 London in the year 1762, Charles Townshend said, ' It is impos- 
 sible this can be an ambassador, for he has not even the 
 preliminaries of a man.' " Lord Kelly. 
 
 " Eating supper is nothing. 'Tis drinking supper hurts a 
 man." 29th May, 1783. 
 
 " Mr. Burke said at Chelsea College dinner, a poor French 
 cook was persecuted by the mob at Edinburgh as a Papist. 
 Said young Burke, ' They had taken him for a frier.' " 
 
 "At Chelsea College dinner, 29th May, 1783, Sir George 
 Howard,:]: the Governor, drank to the memory of Charles the 
 Second, the founder ; and then to the glorious and immortal 
 memory of William the Third, its last royal benefactor. Mr. 
 Burke, who used to joke with Mr. Boswell as a friend to the 
 House of Stewart, observed that no notice had been taken of 
 James the Second, whose name is still inscribed upon the 
 college as a benefactor. Mr. Boswell then said, merely from 
 the connection of the word medio with that prince as the middle 
 king who had promoted that institution, ' Sir George, you are 
 
 * Edward Shuter, comedian, died 1st November, 1776. 
 
 f The Duke de jS^ivernais, an eminent French statesman and poet, 
 was bom IGth December, 1716, and died 25th February, 1798. 
 
 X General Sir George Howard served under the Duke of Cumber- 
 land in suppressing the Scottish EebelHon of 1745. In a note to 
 his " Life of Johnson," Boswell styles liim " My very honourable 
 friend."
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 31? 
 
 unmindful of medio tutissimus ibis.' Sir George answered, very 
 justly, * That is a maxim I think he did not understand.' " 
 
 " My friends are to me like the cinnamon tree, which pro- 
 duces nutmeg, mace, and cinnamon ; not only do I get wisdom 
 and worth out of them, but amusement. I use them as tlie 
 Chinese do their animals ; nothing is lost ; there a very good 
 dish is made of the poorest parts. So I make the follies of my 
 friends serve as a dessert after their valuable qualities." 
 
 " It is very disagreeable to hear a man going about a subject 
 and about it, and hesitating, while one perceives what he 
 means to say. Mental stammering hurts one as much as a 
 stammering in speech." 
 
 Mrs. Boscawen,* I7th May, 1784. 
 
 " I was observing at Mr. Billy's how terrible an idea it was 
 when Mr. Perry was going to the East Indies for ten years in 
 quest of languages. Dr. Johnson said, with his wonderful 
 
 * Mrs. Boscawen was daughter of William Evelyn Glauville, Esq., 
 and wife of Admiral Edward Boscawen, a distinguished commander, 
 and sometime a Lord of the Admiralty. In 1761 she became a 
 widow. Her only son succeeded as third Viscount Falmouth ; and of 
 her two daughters, Frances, the elder, married Admiral John Leveson 
 Gower, brother of the first Marquess of Stafibrd; Elizabeth, the 
 younger daughter, married Henry, fifth Duke of Beaufort. In her 
 poem entitled " Sensibility," Miss Hannah More remarks of Mrs. 
 Boscawen that she — 
 
 " Views enamoured in her beauteous race 
 All Leveson's sweetness and all Beaufort's grace." 
 
 In the « Life of Johnson," Boswell, in allusion to having met the Hon. 
 Mrs Boscawen at dinner at Allan Ramsay's (29th Aprd, 1778) 
 writes • " Of whom, if it be not presumptuous m me to praise her, 1 
 would say that her manners are the most agreeable, and her conversa- 
 tion the best, of any lady with whom I ever had the happmess to be 
 acquainted."
 
 318 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 shrewdness, ' He went to the East Indies. The question is, what 
 did he go from ? ' " 
 
 " My only objection to living in London is that there is too 
 much space and too little time." 27th May 1784. 
 
 " I said Suard had a feeble venom spit-spit." 1784. 
 
 " I told General Paoli that Dr. Johnson said Langton was 
 first a talking man — then he would be a silent man. * All upon 
 system, to be distinguished,' said the General. ' He wanted to 
 go into the cave of Trophonius, and he went into that of Poly- 
 phemus ' (alluding to his being a disciple of Dr. Jolmson)." 
 
 1784. 
 
 " My son Alexander,* one day in December [1783], when in 
 a passion at his sister Phemie for something she had said, 
 used this strong expression, — ' Phemie, if your tongue be not cut 
 out, it will soon be fuU of lies.' " 
 
 1784. 
 
 " January 7. He understood that there was a violent oppo- 
 sition to the king ; and he imagined Sir Philip Ainslie f was on 
 that side. He said the king should send messengers to discover 
 all that are against him. That would soon turn Sir Philip 
 Ainslie's brain right." 
 
 " January 10. He complained that his brother James beat 
 him. Grange said he should not mind him, as he was but a 
 child. ' Ay,' said he, 'but he must not be a big man to me ' 
 (alluding to the weight of his blows)." 
 
 " The difference between an ancient family is sometimes not 
 visible. Above the ground the tree may be the same. The 
 
 ♦ ^QQpnstea. 
 
 I Sir Philip Ainslie, of Pilton, Edinburghshire.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 319 
 
 ancient has only deeper roots, which only antiquarian diggers 
 observe. Yet from the deep roots there are plants of a more 
 stately air, so that in general the difference appears even in the 
 stem and branches; sometimes, indeed, by rich and happy 
 culture, the new ones will look almost as well." 
 
 " In a book of science or of general information, one may in- 
 troduce an eloquent sentence, if not too flighty ; or, when an 
 elevated thought occurs stand on tiptoe, but not rise from the 
 ground. I made this remark to Mr. Lumsden, while reading a 
 passage of higher tone in his account of Eome. It will also 
 apply to Sir John Pringle's* Discourses before the Eoyal 
 Society." 
 
 " A man begged sixpence from a gentleman and was refused. 
 With a melancholy look he said, ' Well, then, I know what to 
 do.' The gentleman struck with this, and dreaming the poor 
 man meant to kill himself, gave him the sixpence, and then 
 asked him, ' What would you do ? ' ' Why, sir,' said he, ' I 
 should be obliged to work.' " Dr. Webster. 
 
 " Peter Boyle t has so much milk of temper one can hardly be 
 angry with him. But even milk will offend, when it goes down 
 the wrong throat." 
 
 " Asparagus is like gentility ; it cannot be brought to the 
 table till several generations from the dunghill." 
 
 " The arsenic sophistry of Gibbon — sweet and poisonous.'* 
 
 * Sir John PrLagle, Bart., a distinguished physician. He was in 
 1772 elected President of the Pi.oyal Society, and six discourses de- 
 livered by him to that body were published after his decease, under 
 the care of Dr. Kippis. These discourses form the theme of Boswell's 
 criticisms. John Pringle died on the 18th January, 1782, aged 
 seventy-five. 
 
 f The Hon. Patrick Boyle, second son of John, second Earl of 
 Glasgow.
 
 320 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 " The minds of some men are like a dark cellar — tlieir know- 
 ledge lies concealed ; while the minds of others are all sunshine 
 and mirror, and reflect all that they read or hear in a lively 
 manner." 
 
 "Sir John Wemyss* calling on E. Colvillef in the abbey a 
 few weeks after losing £uOO by him, was offered by him a tune 
 on the fiddle. 'Stay,' said Sir John, 'till the rest of your 
 creditors get a share.' " 
 
 '"Who's there? ' said the Lord President Arniston, one morning 
 at breakfast, in winter, 1782 — 3 ; ' Idinna see.' John Swinton, 
 then a candidate for a gown, courteously said, ' The light is in 
 your lordship's eyes.' ' No, John,' said he, ' the light's out of 
 my e'en.' " 
 
 " Burke said that it was of great consequence to have a 
 British peerage, for each generation is born in a great theatre 
 where he may display his talents. I told this to General Paoli, 
 who was of a different opinion. ' It is true,' said the general, 
 he is born in a great theatre, but he is applauded before he 
 acts.' " 
 
 "When it was asked in India why Sir Thomas Eumbold'sJ 
 
 * Sir John Wemyss, Bart., of Bogie, Fifeshire. 
 
 f This improvident gentleman, who had sought refuge from his 
 creditors in the sanctuary of Holyrood Abbey, was related to the 
 family of Lord Colville, of Culross. From a dinner card pasted into 
 the commonplace-book, the wife of Dr. Alexander Webster, of Edin- 
 burgh, formerly minister of Culross, thus entreats Boswell's supjjort 
 to this unfortunate bankrupt : — 
 
 " Mrs. Webster begs Mrs. Boswell would set about the collection 
 for poor Mr. Colville, who is truly starving and has not a house to 
 cover his head. Mr. Ely Campbell has too much humanity not to 
 give something handsome." 
 
 J Sir Thoiuao liambold was created a baronet 23rd March, 1770, 
 bein<' then Governor of Madras and M.P. for Shoreham. He had dis-
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 321 
 
 acquisition of wealth made more noise than that of others, a 
 black mail said, 'Others phick one feather, and one feather 
 from the fowl, and the fowl do not make noise ; bat Rumbold 
 tear all the feathers all at once, and the fowl cry Zua, Zua.' " 
 
 Mr. Dempster. 
 
 " General Paoli said of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose deafness 
 made him use a trumpet, ' He has a horn only at one ear ; if he 
 had one at both he would he a Jupiter.' " 6th May. 17<S1. 
 
 "I lold young Burke that Wilkes said he was an enemy 
 to General Paoli from the natural antipathy of good to bad. 
 ' Which is the bad ^ ' said Burke." 6th May, 1781. 
 
 " General Paoli described a blue-stocking meeting verv well : — 
 Here, four or five old ladies talking formally, and a priest (Dr. 
 Barnard, Provost of Etonj, with a wig like the globe, sitting in 
 the middle, as if he were confessing them.' " May, 1781. 
 
 " Mrs. Thrale spoke slightingly of Paradise.* She said, * I 
 never heard him say anything, but my fader vos not a Greek, 
 but my moder was a Greek.' Young Burke and I thought her 
 too severe ; 'but,' said young Burke, ' it seems she does not find 
 the tree of knowledge in Paradise.' " 6th May, 1781. 
 
 " Lady Preston t had catched cold by going to some meeting. 
 
 tiiiguished himself at the siege of Trichinopoly and the retaking of 
 Calcutta. He was wounded at the battle of Plassey, when acting as 
 aide-de-camp to Lord Clive. He died 11th November, 1791. 
 
 * John Paradise, D.C.L., F.R.S., was son of the English consul at 
 Salonica, by his wife, a native of Macedonia. He studied at 
 Padua, and afterwards at Oxford. Having .settled in London, he 
 became a cherished associate of Dr. Johnson. He was distinguished 
 for his learning and social virtues. He died 12th December, 1795. 
 
 t This gentlewoman, jue Anne Cochrane, was wife of Sir Georgo 
 Preston, Bart., of Valleytield. She was daughter of William, Lord 
 Cochrane of Ochiltree. 
 
 T
 
 322 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 Capt. Brisbane* wrote to Lady MaxweU,i- ' Some ladies have a 
 zeal, I do not say without knowledge, but without constitution 
 to support it.' " 
 
 "When Wilkes and I sat together, each glass of wine pro- 
 duced a flash of wit, like gunpowder thrown into the fire — Puff ! 
 puff!" 
 
 " Lord Mountstuart said at J. E. McKye's, 30th April, 1783, 
 that it was observed I was like Charles Fox. ' I have been told 
 so,' said I. ' You're much uglier,' said Col. James Stuart, with 
 his sly drollery. I turned to him, full as sly and as droll : ' Does 
 your wife think so. Colonel James ?' Young Burke said, 'Here 
 was less meant than meets the ear.' " 
 
 " Mr. Charles Cochrane j was applied to requesting freestone 
 to erect a monument at Falkirk to Sir Harry Monro,§ who was 
 killed at the battle there, fighting against Prince Charles in 
 1745. Mr. Cochrane very readily granted the request, and said 
 he should be very glad to give stones for burying all the Whigs 
 in Scotland." From Mr. Stobie, Mr. Cochrane's agent. 
 
 " One who boasted of being an infidel said to Mr. Allan Logan 
 that he wished much to see a spirit, but had in vain visited 
 churchyards and every other place where he had the best 
 chance. Mr. Logan, who was a very serious and even supersti- 
 tious and credulous believer, answered, ' Why, man, you was a 
 
 * A naval captain, of the House of Brisbane, of Brisbane in Ayr- 
 shire. 
 
 f Katherine, Lady Maxwell of Monreith, wife of the fourth baronet. 
 She was daughter and heir of David Blair of Adamton, Ayrshire. 
 
 X Charles Cochrane, Esq., of Culross, a member of the Dundonald 
 family. 
 
 § Sir Eobert IMonro, Bart., of Fowlis (not Sir Harry Munro), is 
 commemorated in the churchyard of Falkirk by a massive and 
 elegantly sculptured tombstone. He fell in the engagement at 
 Falkirk on the 17th January, 1746.
 
 BOSWELLIANA. :V2^ 
 
 great fool for making the experiment, and you would have tlie 
 devil to be as great a fool as yourself. He is sure of you at 
 present, and you would have him to appear to you, that you 
 might be convinced of a future state and escape him ? No, no ; 
 he is too wise for that.' " 
 
 1st Oct., 1780, from the Kev. Mr. Rolland * of Culross. 
 
 " The Earl of Dumfries, f in Charles the Second's time, was a 
 hard-hearted, unfeeling father. His son. Lord Crichton, had 
 gone to Edinburgh, foolishly, as he thought. He died there, and 
 his corpse was brought home to be buried in the family vault. 
 As the earl saw the hearse from his window he said, ' Ay, ay, 
 Charles, thou went to Edinburgh without an errand ; I think 
 thou hast got one to bring thee back again.' My father, who 
 was always averse to my going to London, often told this story 
 before me. I said one day of the earl, ' What a barbarian !' " 
 
 " Mr. Beauclerc told Dr. Johnson that Dr. James J said to him 
 he knew more Greek than Mr. Walmsley.§ ' Sir,' said he, ' Dr. 
 
 * The Rev. James Rolland was ordained minister of the first 
 charge of Culross in 1758; he died 10th December, 1815, in lii.'s 
 eighty-eighth year, and the sixty-second of liis ministry. He ■wa.s 
 reputed for his amiable manners and sterling piety. (Scott's Fasti.) 
 
 ■f William, second Earl of Dumfries, had only one son, Lord 
 Crichton, who reached maturity. He i^redeceased his father, leaving 
 a son and daughter. The earl died in 1691. 
 
 J Dr. Robert James, best known in connection with the fever 
 powder that bears his name, was born in 170.3, at Kinverston, 
 Staffordshire. After practising as a physician at Sheffield, Lichfield, 
 and Birmingham, he removed to London, where he published his 
 " Medicinal Dictionary." In the preparation of this work he was 
 assisted by Dr. Johnson, who had been las schoolfellow, and who 
 regarded him as a skilful practitioner. Dr. James produced several 
 other medical works. He died at London on the 23rd March, 1776. 
 
 § Mr. Gilbert Walmesley, an early friend and patron of Dr. 
 Johnson. He was an elegant scholar, and contributed many transla- 
 tions in Latin verse to the Gentleman's Magazine. He died on the 
 3rd Argust, 1751. A monument to his memory has been reared in 
 Lichfield Cathedral.
 
 324 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 James did not kuow enough of Greek to be sensible of his 
 ignorance of the language. Walmsley did.' " Mk, Langton. 
 
 " A certain young clergyman used to come about Dr. Johnson. 
 The Doctor said it vexed him to be in his company, his ignorance 
 was so hopeless. ' Sir,' said Mr. Langton, ' his coming about you 
 shows he wishes to help his ignorance.' ' Sir,' said the Doctor, 
 ' his ignorance is so great, I am afraid to show him the bottom 
 of it.' " Mr. Langton. 
 
 " To account for the common remark that the more a man 
 advances in knowledge, the less he seems to himself to know, 
 Mr. Burke said that what is in itself infinite, there is a larger 
 circle without the first, and a larger without the next, and soon." 
 
 Young Mr. Burke. 
 
 "Dr. Johnson desired me to tell Sheridan* he'd be glad 
 to see him and shake hands with him. I said Sheridan was 
 
 unwilling to come, as he never could forget the attack half 
 
 told him. ' But it was wrong to keep up resentment so long,' 
 said the Doctor ; * the truth is, he knows I despise his character ; 
 'tis not all resentment ; partly out of habit, and rather disgust, as 
 at) a drug that has made him sick.' " 
 
 " Lady Townshendf sent to Mr. Winuington for his coach 
 and six horses one day. H e asked her afterwards if they came 
 in proper time, and her ladyship was pleased with them. ' Oh,' 
 said she, ' I only invited them to dine. I wished they should 
 have one good dinner, so I ordered them plenty of hay and 
 straw.' " Mr. Langton. 
 
 " I said it was a strange thing that Short, % the famous tele- 
 
 * Thomas Sheridan, father of his more celebrated sou, Richard 
 Brinsley Sheridan (see supra). 
 
 f Nee Lady Charlotte Compton, daughter of James, Earl of 
 Northampton, and wife of Field-marshal George, fourth Viscount 
 Townshend. 
 
 X James Short, the eminent optician, was a native of Edinburgh, 
 and studied at the univorsity of that city. In 1736 he became
 
 BOSWELLIANA. 325 
 
 scope maker in London, left a legacy of a thousand pounds to 
 Lady Mary Douglas, who had no need of money, when he liad a 
 number of poor relations. Thomas Earl of Kelly said upon 
 this, ' He was not a reflecting telescope maker.' " 
 
 "It was mentioned at Lady Colville's* that Mrs. C, of S., 
 whose husband was a very big man, had once been very fond 
 of Colonel M., and had suffered much from his forsaking her. 
 ' What !' said a lady ; ' she seems to like her husband so well, that 
 I could not believe she was ever fond of any other man.' ' She 
 was very fond of another man,' said I. 'But her husband 
 smothered that passion.' " 1783. 
 
 " At a dinner at Mr. Crosbie's, when the company were very 
 merry, the Eev. Dr. Webster told them he was sorry to go away 
 so early, but was obliged to catch the tide, to cross the Frith of 
 Forth to Fife. ' Better stay a little,' said Thomas Earl of Kelly ,t 
 'till you be half seas over.' " Eev. De. Webster. 
 
 " Harry Erskine and another advocate, had written papers in 
 a cause before Lord Westhall.} They thought them very good 
 
 mathematical tutor to the Duke of Cumberland. In 1739 he made a 
 survey of the Orkney islands. He subsequently settled in London as 
 an optician, and obtained a high reputation for his skill in constructing 
 telescopes. He died on the 15th June, 1768, aged 58. He had 
 experienced the patronage of James, thirteenth Earl of ^lorton, and 
 he evinced his gratitude by bequeathing a thousand pounds to Lady 
 Mary Douglas (afterwards Countess of Aboyne), the daughter of his 
 benefactor. 
 
 * Boswell refers to the Dowager Lady Colviile, relict of Alexander, 
 the eighth Baron. She was daughter of Alexander, sixth Earl of 
 Kellie, and sister of the Hon. Captain Andrew Erskine. 
 
 f Thomas Alexander, sixth Earl of Kellie, an eniint-nt musician 
 and noted humorist. Died 9th October, 1781. 
 
 + David Dalrymple, son of Henry Dalrymjde of Dnuiinidn', jMb.'^cd 
 advocate in 1743, and was raised to the bench as Lord "Westliall, lOtli 
 July, 1777. He died 26th April, 1781, in his Holh year.
 
 326 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 papers. But a clerk came to Mr. Erskine with a message that 
 ' My Lord had read the papers, and could not understand them, 
 and he would send a note of what he vjanted. ' Make my com- 
 pliments to his lordship,' said Erskine, ' and tell him (pointing tew 
 his forehead) I have none to spare.' " 
 
 From Mr. Erskine himself. 
 
 " On the 2nd December, 1782, I went to dine at Walker's 
 tavern with a committee of the Presbytery of Edinburgh, who 
 were taking evidence in a criminal process — the heritors of 
 Carsphairn* against Mr. Affleck, who had a presentation to that 
 parish. The agent for the heritors was the entertainer. I was 
 asked to take the head of the table thus : — * Mr. Bos well, you 11 
 take this end.' ' No,' said I, ' the Moderator will sit there.' ' Then 
 you'll take this end,' the foot of the table. ' No,' said I, pointing 
 to the agent. I placed myself about the middle of the table, 
 and said, ' I have no end in view but a good dinner.' Said the 
 Eev. Mr. Brown,t of Edinburgh, 'The end is lawful if the means 
 be good.' " 
 
 " Miss Leslie, General Leslie's X daughter, had a pretty neck- 
 
 * The parish of Carsphairn, in the Presbytery of Kirkcudbright, 
 became vacant in May 1780, by the death of the Eev. John Camp- 
 bell. The presentee, Mr. Affleck, was probably a son of John Affleck, 
 of AVhitepark, in the same county. His settlement was successfully 
 resisted. 
 
 f The Eev. James Brown merits more than a passing notice. 
 Youngest son of the Eev. John Brown, minister of Abercorn, he was 
 born in that parish in 1721. Licensed by the Presbytery of Perth 
 in 1745, he was in 1747 ordained minister of Melrose. In 1767 
 was translated to Edinburgh. At Melrose he gave an impulse 
 to the linen manufactures of the place ; he afterwards became a 
 zealous promoter of the national charities. On his recommendation, 
 Scripture Paraphrases were added to the Psalmody of the Church. 
 He died on May, 1786. 
 
 J Lieut. -General Alexander Leslie was second son of Alexander, 
 fifth Earl of Leven. In active service during the American war,
 
 BOSWELLIANA, Wll 
 
 lace, she obligingly took it off, and let me look at it. I said, ' It is 
 pretty, even when it's off/ " 12th Nov., 1782. 
 
 " Sir James Johnstone * asked me if turning off nominal and 
 fictitious voters now upon the roll would not be an act of 
 violence. 'Yes/ said I, ' it would be an act of violence. But it 
 would be an act of violence like turning thieves out of your 
 house/" 12th Nov., 1782. 
 
 " Mr. Keith,-f- the envoy, was in company with a good High- 
 land lady, some of whose sons had been successful in the army. 
 The company were talking of putting their sons to different 
 professions. Said she, with great earnestness, ' If I had twenty 
 sons, I would put them all to the sword! " 
 
 From his eldest daughter, 12th Nov., 1782.} 
 
 " I said Lord Monboddo chose to vary Horace's Mens sana 
 in corjpore sano, and to have mens insana incorpore sane ; for his 
 endeavour is to keep his mind wild and his body robust." 
 
 12th Nov., 1782. 
 
 " Langton said he could not laugh at Burke's wit. The Bishop 
 of Killaloe said, ' I'll tell you a story : Colonel Lutterel was at 
 the house of a gentleman who insisted on his drinking more 
 
 he distinguished himself at the battle of Guildford, on the 15th 
 March, 1781. His only child, Mary-Ann Leslie, married 15th June, 
 1787, John Eutherford, Esq., of Edgerstown. 
 
 * Sir James Johnstone, Bart., of Westcrhall, was a heutenant- 
 colonel in the army and member of Parliament. In 1792 lie laid 
 claim to the marquisate of Annandale. He died unmarried iu 1794. 
 
 I Mr. Eobert Keith was ambassador at Vienna in 1749, and in 1758 
 was transferred to St. Petersburg. He died at Edinburgh in 1774. 
 
 X Miss Jenny Keith. The younger sister, Anne, latterly called Mrs. 
 Murray Keith, was an intimate friend of Sii" Walter Scott ; she is 
 the prototype of Mrs. Bethune BaUol, in the introduction to the 
 " Chronicles of the Canongate." She died in 1818, aged 82.
 
 328 BOSWELLIANA. 
 
 llian he chose, and lucked the door on him. The colonel fell 
 upon a contrivance to get off' which succeeded. " Come," said 
 the gentleman, " lill your glass, you must drink /' " Sir," said the 
 colonel, " I don't like your wine." The gentleman had nothing 
 to say.'" 27th May, 1783. * 
 
 " Laugton said Burke hammered his wit upon an anvil, and the 
 iron was cold. There were no sparks flashing and flying all 
 about. Said the Bishop of Killaloe,* ' I don't think the iron is 
 cold, but Burke is not so much a smith as he is a chymist, he 
 analyzes a word, he decomposes it, and brings out all its different 
 
 meaning 
 
 senses." 27th May, 1783. 
 
 " I said to General Paoli, it was wonderful how much Corsica 
 had done for me, how far I had got in the world by having been 
 there. 1 had got upon a rock in Corsica and jumped into the 
 middle of life. " 27th May, 1783. 
 
 " It was observed by somebody that Lord Dundonald attended 
 to the church very ill. Miss Preston said that their two black 
 servants were generally there every Sunday, — ' Ay,' said ]\Ir. 
 Charles Preston, ' but two blacks don't make a white.' " 
 
 Valley Field, 17th October, 1778. 
 
 * Thomas Barnard, D.D.
 
 329 
 
 UXOEIANA. 
 
 "When I was warm, telling of my own consequence and 
 generosity, my wife made some cool humbling remarks upon me. 
 I flew into a violent passion ; I said if you throw cold water 
 on a plate of iron much heated it will burst into shivers." 
 
 "She recommended reading the 'Arabian Nights Entertain- 
 ments' to one in bad health and low spirits; 'not,' said she; 'to 
 be taken into the mind, but to keep out disturbing thoughts ; 
 let them be like a sentry, whom we do not admit into the 
 chamber of a sick person, but place at the door to prevent 
 noisy intruders.' " 
 
 " She disapproved of my inviting Mr. AI sh, a man of 
 
 ability but of violent manners, to make one in a genteel party 
 at our house one evening. ' He is, ' said she, ' like fire and water, 
 useful, but not to be brought into company.' " 
 
 " Dr. Grant asked if Mr. Macadam of Craigengellan had but 
 one daughter. I said he had properly speaking but one — one 
 beautiful daughter, the other poor girl M'as very ugly. My 
 wife said that it was hard that want of good looks should make 
 her not be reckoned his daughter; she was more a daugliter 
 on that account, as being more likely to continue with him."
 
 330 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Page 52.— In his "Life of Garrick" (Lond., 1868, vol. I., 
 p. 422) Mr. Percy Fitzgerald presents the following narrative of 
 Boswell's appearance at a dinner in Guildhall. The date 1759 
 assigned to the occasion is evidently erroneous. It is not im- 
 probable that it took place shortly after the interchange of 
 letters between him and Mr. Pitt. "The Grocer in London" 
 was probably composed in the manner of the " Song of the 
 Barber," quoted at page 36. 
 
 " At a Guildhall dinner, when Mr. Pitt was present with 
 Sir Joshua [Reynolds] and other celebrities, Mr. Boswell con- 
 trived to be asked to sing; then, standing up, he delivered a 
 short speech referring to himself, in which he said that he had 
 had the good fortune to be introduced to most of the crowned 
 heads and distinguished characters in Europe, but with aU his 
 exertions had never attained the happiness of being presented 
 to a gentleman, who was an honour to his country, and Mdiose 
 talents he held in the highest esteem. All the company under- 
 stood the allusion, but Mr. Pitt remained perfectly cold and 
 impassive. Then Mr. Boswell gave his song, which was a sort 
 of parody on Dibdin's ' Sweet Little Cherub,' and called ' A 
 Grocer in London.' The minister was a member of the Grocers' 
 guild, and this absurdity was in his honour. So far this was 
 ludicrous enough, but BosweU, half volunteering and half pressed 
 by the company, and no doubt much affected by the wine, sang 
 this song over no less than six times, until Mr. Pitt's muscles at 
 length relaxed, and he was obliged to join in the general 'roar.
 
 APPENDIX. 331 
 
 Mr. Taylor, who was present, walked home with the author of 
 the song, and recollected that they roared ' Grocer of London ' 
 all through the streets." 
 
 Pages 49 and 110.— Boswell was wont to attend public exe- 
 cutions, both in Edinburgh and London, but the propensity of 
 witnessing such spectacles was in his mind unassociated witli an 
 indifference to suffering. His love of excitement overcame his 
 natural sympathies, and obscured his judgment. In June, 1790, 
 he induced Sir Joshua Reynolds to accompany him to Newgate, to 
 witness the execution of five convicts. One of these, an old 
 servant of Mrs. Thrale, recognised Boswell among the crowd, and 
 bowed to him from the scaffold. Some persons having censured 
 Sir Joshua for being present at such a revolting spectacle, 
 he justified his procedure in a letter to Boswell. An extract 
 follows : — 
 
 " I am obliged to you for carrying me yesterday to see the 
 execution at Newgate of the five malefactors. I am convinced 
 it is a vulgar error ; the opinion that it is so terrible a spectacle, 
 or that it in any way implies a hardness of heai-t or cruelty of 
 disposition, any more than such a disposition is implied in 
 seeking delight from the representation of a tragedy. Such an 
 execution as we saw, when there was no torture of the body, or 
 expression of agony of the mind, but when the criminals, on the 
 contrary, appeared perfectly composed, without the least trem- 
 bling, ready to speak and answer with civility and attention any 
 question that was proposed, neither in a state of torpidity nor 
 insensibility, but grave and composed, — I am convinced from 
 what we saw, and from the report of Mr. Ackerman, that it is a 
 state of suspense that is the most irksome and intolerable to the 
 human ;nind, and that certainty, though of the worst, is a 
 more eligible state ; that the mind soon reconciles itself even to 
 the worst, when that worst is fixed as fate. . . I consider it
 
 332 APPENDIX. 
 
 is natural to desire to see such sights, and, if I may venture, to 
 take delight in them, in order to stir and interest the mind, to 
 give it some emotion, as moderate exercise is necessary for the 
 body." 
 
 Page 136. — When he was passing through the ]Dress his "Tour 
 to the Hebrides," Boswell conceived the idea of sitting for his 
 portrait to Sir Joshua Eeynolds. The following letter which he 
 addressed to the great artist is peculiarly characteristic : — 
 
 " My Deak Sik, — The debts which I contracted in my father's 
 lifetime will not bq cleared off by me for some years. I there- 
 fore think it unconscientious to indulge myself in any expensive 
 article of elegant luxury. But in the meantime you may die, 
 or I may die ; and I should regret very much that there should 
 not be at Auchinleck my portrait painted by Sir Joshua Eey- 
 nolds, with whom I have the felicity of living in social intimacy. 
 I have a proposal to make to you. I am for certain to be called 
 to the English Bar next February : will you now do my pic- 
 ture ? and the price shall be paid out of the first fees which I 
 receive as a barrister in Westminster Hall. Or if that fund 
 should fail, it shall be paid at any rate five years hence by my- 
 self or my representatives. If you are pleased to approve of this 
 proposal, you signifying your concurrence underneath upon two 
 duplicates, one of which shall be kept by each of us, will be a 
 sufficient voucher of the obligation. I ever am, with very sincere 
 regards, my dear sir, your faithful and affectionate humble 
 servant, James Boswell. 
 
 "London, 7th June, 1785." 
 
 Tliis letter was endorsed by Sir Joshua thus : — " I agree to the 
 above condition. — London, September lOth, 1785." Boswell's 
 portrait, in kit-cat size, was painted by Sir Joshua some time 
 afterwards. Whether a price was named or paid does not 
 appear, but it is certain the biographer and the great painter
 
 APPENDIX. 333 
 
 remained in terms of tlie closest friendship. Sir Joshua died in 
 1792; he bequeathed to Boswell the sum of £200, to be e.\- 
 pended, if he thought proper, in the purchase of a picture at 
 the sale of his paintings, to be kept for his sake. Boswell's 
 portrait by Eeynolds is now in the collection of Sir Robert 
 Peel, Bart. (" Life and Times of Sir Joshua Eeynolds," by 
 C. R. Leslie, R.A., and Tom Taylor. Lond., 1815, 2 vols.)
 
 334 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aberdeen, Earl of, 226 
 
 Abingdon, Mrs., 97 * 
 
 Adam, Lord Cbief Commissioner, 252 
 
 Adams, Dr. of Oxford, 109 
 
 Adolphus, Gustavus, 3 
 
 Affleck, Kev. Mr., 326 
 
 Ainslie, Sir Philip, 318 
 
 Alexander II., 2 
 
 Alexander, Cosmo, 314 
 
 Alexander, John, 314 
 
 Almack's Hotel, 224 
 
 Alva, Lord, 199 
 
 Amelia, Princess, 195 
 
 Amete, Mademoiselle, 230 
 
 Anstrutber, Sir William, Bart., 257 
 
 Antonetti, Signor, 48 
 
 Argyll, Duchess of, 92 
 
 Argyll, Duke of, 12, 92, 229, 231, 245, 
 260, 305 
 
 Armstrong, John, M.D., 255, 287 
 
 Arran, James, first Earl of, 3 
 
 Ashbourne, 115 
 
 Aubrey, Mr. 299 
 
 Aubrey, Mrs., 300 
 
 Auchinleck, Lord, 4, 5, 12, 13, 35, 43, 
 48, 65, 79, 82, 92, 100—109, 114, 
 128, 129, 199, 221, 229, 234, 238, 
 242, 244, 245,- 246, 247, 248, 251, 
 257, 258, 260, 261, 262, 264, 265, 
 266, 267, 306 
 
 Auld, Rev. William, 263 
 
 Bagnall, Mis?, 167 
 
 Baidlin, I>aird of, 267 
 
 Baillie, George, of Jerviswoode, 306, 
 
 317 
 Bainston, Letitia, 123 
 Baird, Sir William, Bart., 312 
 Baldwin, Thomas, printer, 136, 155, 
 
 171. 174 
 
 Balfour, Andrew, 279 
 
 Baliol, Mrs. Bethune, 327 
 
 Balmuto, Lord, 4, 82, 108 
 
 Banks, Sir Joseph, 163, 269, 270, 273 
 
 Barclay, Harry, of CoUairnie, 303 
 
 Bardarrock, Laird of, 262 
 
 Baretti, 53 
 
 Barker, Jane, 6 
 
 Barker, John, 6 
 
 Barnard, William, D.D,, iii 
 
 Barrow, Dr., 165 
 
 Beauclerk, Lady Diana, 296 
 
 Beauclerk, Lord Sidney, 289 
 
 Beauclerk, Topham, 289, 323 
 
 Beattie, Dr. James, 20, 85, 191, 282 
 
 Beaufort, Duke of, 317 
 
 Bedford, Duke of, 62 
 
 Berghen, Bishop of, 273 
 
 Berkeley, Bishop, 238 
 
 Bernard, Dr., Bishop of Killaloe, iii, 
 
 297 
 Bernard, Mr., 232 
 Bertie, Captain Peregrine, 238, 239 
 Blacket, Sir Thomas, 139 
 Blacklock, Dr., 20, 86 
 Blair, Bryce of Blair, 267 
 Blair, T^aird of, 267
 
 INDEX. 
 
 335 
 
 Blair, Miss, of Adamtown, 67, 78 
 
 Blair, Mr. "William, 267 
 
 Blair, Rev. Dr. Hugh, 27, 86, 207, 209 
 
 Blair, Eev. Robert, 267 
 
 Bodens, Mr., 290 
 
 Boscawen, Admii-al Edward, 317 
 
 Boscawen, Mrs., 317 
 
 BosviUe, Adam de, 2 
 
 Bosville, Elizabeth Diana, 67, 89, 139, 
 
 140 
 Bosville, Godfrey, 140 
 Bosville, Robert, i 
 Bosville, Sieur de, i 
 Boswell, Alexander, (see Lord Auchin- 
 
 leck) 
 Boswell, Alexander, W. S., 198 
 Boswell, Sir Alexander, Bart., 106, 154, 
 
 186, 318 
 BosweU, Andrew, of Balmuto, 4 
 Boswell, Claude James, Lord Balmuto, 
 
 4, 82, 108 
 Boswell Colonel Bruce, 188, 196, 197 
 Boswell, David, of Auchinleck, 3, 4 
 Boswell, David, of Glasmont, 2 
 Boswell, David, or Thomas David, 5, 
 
 150, 154, 169, 177, 181, 185, 186 
 Boswell, Dr. John, 4, 30, 124, 197 
 BosweU, Elizabeth,82, 155, 195, 196 
 Boswell, Elizabeth M. M., 196 
 Boswell, Emily Harriet, 195 
 Boswell, Euphemia, 154, 195, 196 
 BosweU, Grace Jane, 194 
 Boswell, Grace Theresa, 194 
 Boswell, Henry St. George, 198 
 BosweU, James, i — 333 
 Boswell, James, jun., 136, 154, 180, 192, 
 Boswell, James Paoli, 196 
 Boswell, John Alexander Corrie, 198 
 BosweU, John, of Auchinleck, 3 
 BosweU, John Campbell, 198 
 BosweU, John de, 2 
 BosweU, John WilUam, 197 
 Boswell, Julia, 195 
 BosweU, Lieutenant John, 5, 185 
 Boswell, Major John James, 198 
 BosweU, Margaret Emily, 194 
 
 BosweU, Mrs, 93, 94, 106, 120, 149— 
 
 152, 183, 193 
 BosweU, Mrs. Elizabeth, 197 
 Boswell, Richard, 2 
 Boswell, Robert, of Balmuto, 4, 82 
 BosweU, Robert Cramond, 196 
 Boswell, Robert W. S., 186, 197, 198 
 BosweU, Roger do, 2 
 BosweU, Rev. Robert, 2 
 Boswell, Rev. Robert Bruce, 19S 
 BosweU, Sir James, Bart., 194 
 Boswell, Sir John, of Balgregie, 2 
 Boswell, Sir John, of Balmuto, 2 
 Boswell, Sir "WilUam, 2 
 BosweU, Thomas Alexander, 195, 197 
 BosweU, Thomas, of Auchinleck, 3 
 Boswell, "William, advocate, 196, 197 
 BosweU, Veronica, 4, 85, 148, 154, 
 
 195 
 BoswelUana, 203 — 328 
 Bouflers, Countess de, 50 
 Boulton, Mr., no 
 Bowes, Jack, 247 
 Boyle, Hon. Patrick, 319 
 Brisbane, Captain, 322 
 Bristol, 112, 
 Briton, A., 295 
 Brocklesby, Dr., 301 
 Brompton, Robert, 289 
 Brown, George, of EUiestoun, 254 
 Brown, Bailie John, 281 
 Brown, Matthew, 260 
 BrowTi, Rev. James, 326 
 Bro^^^l, Rev. Laurence, 220 
 Brown, Rev. WiUiam, of Utrecht, 42, 
 
 219, 222 
 Brown, "WilUam Laurence, D.D., 220 
 Bruce, Lady EUzabeth, 4, 183 
 Bnicp, Miss, of Kinross, 303 
 Bruce, Mrs. Bell, 185 
 Bruce, Sir "William, Bart., 303 
 Brun, Madame le, 66 
 Buchan, BuUer of, 88 
 Buchan, Earl of, 206 
 Buchanan, George, 142 
 Buchanan, Mr., 154
 
 336 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, ii6, 152, 153, 163, 
 
 171, 291, 316, 327, 328 
 Burke, Edmund, jun., 163, 321 
 Burke, Eichard, 287 
 Burnet, Mr. Secretary, 227, 228, 230 
 Burnett, James, of ]\Iouboddo, 285 
 Burney, Charles, Mus. D., 300 
 Burns, Kobert, 24, 33, 129, 162, 253 
 Bute, Earl of, 48, 97, 122, 133, 252 
 Buttafoco, Mr., 48 
 Cadogan, Lord, 178 
 Caithness, Earl of Orkney and, 3 
 Caldow, James, 186 
 Cambridge, Richard Owen, 63, 15S 
 Camden, Lord, 279 
 Camden, Lord Chaucenor, 66 
 Campbell, Annabella, of Loudoun, 3 
 Campbell, Archibald, of Suceoth, 274 
 Campbell, Captain, of Skipness, 310 
 Campbell, David, of Shawfield, 310 
 Campbell, Mr. Islay, 141, 274 
 Campbell, Sir Hugh, of Loudoun, 3 
 Campbells of Suceoth, 244 
 Carlisle, 115 
 
 Carlyle, Dr. Alexander, 32 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 189 
 Carmichael, Mr. WiUiara, 25S 
 Carnwath, Earls of, 3, 307 
 Carron Company, 80 
 Carstairs, Sir John, 303 
 Cassilis, Earl of, 149, 313 
 Cathcart, Lord, 59, 262, 302 
 Chambers, Sir Robert, 86 
 Chambers, William, 3, 20 
 Chapelle, Monsieur, 219 
 Charlemont, Lord, 79 
 Charles I., 3 
 Charles II., 316 
 Chartres, Colonel Francis, 305 
 Chatham, Earl of, 52, 58, 231 
 Chesterfield, Earl of, 155, 172, 211, 
 
 297 
 Churchill, Charles, 239 
 Clark, Baron, 244 
 Clark, Dr., 265 
 Clarke, Dr. Samuel, 175, 219 
 Clerk, John, physician, 244 
 
 Clerk, Sir John, Bart., 244 
 
 Clive, liOrd, 270 
 
 Cochrane, Anne, 321 
 
 Cochrane, Charles, 246, 264, 322 
 
 Cochrane, General, 7 
 
 Cochrane, William, of Oehiltiee, 5, 199, 
 
 321, 325 
 
 Coke, Viscount, 305 
 
 Col, Isle of, 91 
 
 Colebrooke, Sir George, 279 
 
 Colline, Battle of, 227 
 
 Colman, George, 292 
 
 Col([uhoun, Sir James, Bart., 92 
 
 Cohille, Lady, 23, 93, 325 
 
 Colville, Lord, of Culross, 320 
 
 Compton, Lady Charlotte, 324 
 
 Constable. Archibald, 24 
 
 Conwa}^, General, 153 
 
 Cooper, Dr., 248 
 
 Coote, Sir Eyre, 88 
 
 Corbet, Jacobie, 309 
 
 Cork, Earl of, 126 
 
 Cosway, Mrs., 299 
 
 Cosway, Richard, K.A., 299 
 
 Courtenay, John, M P., 137, 150, 163, 
 
 165, 172, 181 
 Cramond, Robert, of Auldbar, 197 
 Crawford, ]\Iarion of Kerse, 3 
 Crawfurd, Mr., of Rotterdam, 213 
 Crawley Grange, Estate of, 6, 197 
 Crichton, Lord, 323 
 Croker, John Wilson, 34 
 Crosbie, Andrew, advocate, 283, 2S6, 
 
 -294, 295, 272 
 Cullen, Dr., 224 
 Cullen, Lord, 250, 251, 252 
 Cumberland, Duke of, 254, 325 
 Cumberlye, Catherine Augusta, 197 
 Cumberlyc, Elizabeth ^lary, 197 
 Cumming, Thomas, 
 Cunningham, Allan, 253 
 Cunningham, Jessie Jane, 194 
 Cunningham, Sir David, 97, 205 
 Cunningham, Sir Jas.,of Glengarnock, 4 
 Cunningham, Sir James Montgomery , 
 
 Bart., 194 
 Cunningham, Sir William A , Bart., 205
 
 INDEX. 
 
 337 
 
 D'Anhalt Governeur, dii, 227 
 
 D'Ankerville, M., 299 
 
 Daer, Lord, 301 
 
 Dalrymple, Aiidrew, 186 
 
 Dalrymple, David, 325 
 
 Dalrymple, Henry, of Drummore, 325 
 
 Dalrymple, Sir John, 256 
 
 Dalrymple, Sir David, Bart., 5, 10, 11, 
 
 12, 17, 24, 29, 30, 35, 37, 39, 40, 
 
 86, 106, 221 
 DaUiol, Honorius, 5 
 Dalzell, Christian, 3 
 Dalzell, Sir Rohert, 3 
 Damer, Mr., 239 
 David I., I 
 David II., 2 
 Daviea, Thomas, 25, 97 
 Delany, Dr., 297 
 Dempster, George, M.P., 31—34, 173. 
 
 185, 210, 270, 287, 307 
 Dempster, Helen, 224 
 Derrick, the poet, 16, 216 
 Dick, Miss, 75 
 Dick, Sir Alexander, Bart., 75, 86, 
 
 280 
 Dick, Sir John, Bart., 185, 298 
 Dilly, Charles, 59, 62, 127, 137, 155, 
 
 171, 174, 185, 317 
 Dilly, Edward, 59, 62, 113, 186 
 Donaldson, Alexander, 20, 203 
 Douglas Case, The, 65, 66 
 Douglas, Duke of, 66 
 Douglas, Duchess of, 86 
 Douglas, Lady Jane, 66 
 Douglas, Lady Mary, 325 
 Douglas, Mr. Archibald, 66, 92 
 Douglas, Sir John, 312 
 Dreghorn, liOrd, 203 
 Drummond, Mrs. Home, 303 
 Duff, William, of Braco, 311 
 Dumfries, Countess of, 248 
 Dumfries, Earl of, 149, 323 
 Dun, Lord, 277 
 
 Dud, Rev. John, 6, 151, 162, 177 
 Dunbar, Mrs. , of Mackermore, 308 
 Dundas, Henry, Lord Melyille, 98, 141, 
 149, 152 
 
 Dundas, Lord President, 66, 255, 266, 
 
 275 
 Dundas, James, of Arniston, 266 
 Dundas, Mrs., of Melville, 206 
 Dundonald, Earls of, 5, 199 
 Dunlop, John, of Dunlop, 283 
 Dunlop, Major Andrew, 2S-5 
 Dunmorc, Earl of, 313 
 Dunning, John, 291 
 Dunvegan castle, 90 
 Edmon stone. Colonel Archibald, 241 
 Edward, Prince Charles, 90, 245 
 Eglinton, Countess of, 92 
 Eglinton, Earl of, 14, 15, 97, 142, 1491 
 
 207, 218, 232, 308 
 Eldon, Lord Chancellor, 195 
 Elibank, Lady, 312 
 Elibank, Lord, 93, 27 1 
 Eliott, Sir William Francis, Bart., 194 
 EUiot, Sir Gilbert, 257 
 Elizabeth, Princess, of Brunswick, 237 
 Errol, Countess of, 88 
 Erskine, Captain, 97 
 Erskine, Charles, of Tinwald, 246 
 Erskine, Colonel John, 5, 199 
 Erskine, David, Lord Dun, 277 
 Erskine, Euphemia, 5 
 Erskine, Hon. Captain Andrew, 19, 20, 
 
 22, 23, 24, 235, 252, 255, 315 
 Erskine, Hon. Captain Archibald, 282 
 Erskine, Hon. Charles, 199 
 Erskine, Hon. Henry, 205, 206, 207, 
 
 294. 325 
 Erskine, Hon. Sir Charles, Bart., 5, 199 
 
 Erskine, Lady Anne, 282, 308 
 
 Erskine, Lt. -General Sir Henry, 199 
 
 Erskine, Mary, 199 
 
 Erskine, llev. Dr. John, 266 
 
 Fairlie, Alexander, of Fairlie, 185 
 
 Falconer, George, 79 
 
 Falconer, Mr., 123 
 
 Ferdinand, Prince, 263 
 
 Ferguson, George, Lord Hermand, 286 
 
 Fergusson, Professor Adam, 86 
 
 Forgusson, Sir Adam, Bart.. 149, 152. 
 
 232, 2S3 
 Fergu^soD, Sir James, Bart., 2S6 
 Z
 
 338 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Fife, Earl of, 311 
 
 Fitz William, Earl, 117 
 
 Fletcher, Andrew, of Saltoun, 236 
 
 Flood, Mr., 79, 164 
 
 Foley, Lord, 298 
 
 Folly, Colonel, 306 
 
 Foote, Samuel, 215, 254 
 
 Forbes, Duncan, of CuUoden, 255 
 
 Forbes, Sir William, Bart., 86, 183, 185, 
 
 186, 191 
 Fordyce, Dr. George, 217, 234 
 Fordyce, Rev. Dr. James, 217 
 Forglen, Lord, 256, 264 
 Forrester, Colonel, 314 
 Fort Augustus, 88 
 Fort George, 88 
 
 Fox, Et. Hon. Charles, 122, 132, 171, 
 Frank, Betty, 260 
 Frank, George, advocate, 260 
 Franklin, Dr. Benjamin, 61, 298 
 Fraser, Sir Alexander, 313 
 Frazer, Sir Peter, of Dores, 313 
 Fullerton, " the Nabob," 73, 74 
 Gainslaw, 83 
 Gaio, M., 234 
 
 Gallov^ay, Lord, 304, 310, 311 
 Garlies, Lady, 304, 310 
 Garrick, David, 26, 62, 81, 85, 95 
 Gentleman Francis, 12 
 Gibbon, Edward, 31, iii, 112, 301, 
 
 319 
 Giffardier, M., 219, 222, 223 
 Gilchrist, Mr. John, 6 
 Gilmour, Sir Alexander, 73, 74 
 Glanville, William Evelyn, 317 
 Glasgow, 92 
 Glen, Sir John, 2 
 Glencairn, Earl of, 149 
 Glenelg, 89 
 Goldie, John, 193 
 Goldie, G., 303, 314 
 Goldsmith, Dr., 85, 136 
 Gordon, Alexander, of Kinghorn, 2 
 Gordon, Cosmo, 294 
 Gordon, Duchess of, 72, 286 
 Gordon, Duke of, 275 
 Gordon, Hon. Alexander, 253, 254 
 
 Gordon, Lord George, 206 
 
 Gordon, Mr., of Dumfries, 20 
 
 Gordon, Sir William Gordon, Bart., of 
 
 Park, 245 
 Gotha, La Grande Maitresse de, 232 
 Grantham, 94, 98 
 Grant, General Sir Alexander, 280 
 Grant, Sir Francis, Bart., 265 
 Gray, the poet, 8, 63, 147 
 Green, Anne Catherine, 6 
 Green, General Sir Charles, Bart,, 6 
 Green, Mr., 182 
 Gregory, Dr., 58, 86 
 Gronovius, Abrahamus, 37 
 Grumet, Laird of, 262 
 Guy, the bookseller, 50 
 G Wynne, Nell, 196 
 Haddington, Earl of, 254, 255, 308 
 Hadfield, Miss, 299 
 Hailes, Lord, 5, 10, 11, 12, 17, 24, 29, 
 
 30, 35. 37> 39. 40. 58, 59. 61, 
 
 62, 86, 93, 102, 106, III 
 Hall Stevenson, John, 210 
 Hamilton, Anne, 4 
 Hamilton, David, of Monckland, 296 
 Hamilton, Duke of, 66, 92, 312 
 Hamilton, James, of Bangour, 270, 
 
 271 
 Hamilton, James, of Dalziel 4 
 Hamilton, John, of Sundrum, 285 
 Hamilton, Lady Janet, 3 
 Hanger, Colonel, George, 302 
 Hardwicke, Lord Chancellor, 235 
 Harley, Robert, Earl of Orford, 297 
 Hastie, a schoolmaster, 85 
 Hastings, Warren, 158, 165 
 Hawkesworth, Dr., 91 
 Hawkins, Mr., M.P., 165 
 Hawkins, Sir John, 155, 156 
 Hay, Charles, Lord Newton, 275, 279 
 Hay, David, of Naughton, 2 
 Heaton, Mr., no 
 
 Hebrides, Tour to the, 85 — 94. 105, 151 
 Henderland, Lord, 275 
 Henderson, Matthew, 253 
 Heron, Mrs., of Heron, 302, 303 
 Heron, Patrick, M. P. , 303, 308
 
 INDEX. 
 
 339 
 
 Hemes, Charles, 5 
 
 Hertford, Marquess of, 153 
 
 Hervey, Captain Augustus, 230 
 
 Hird, John, 186 
 
 Hood, Miss do, 262 
 
 Home, Rev. John, 17, 20, 32, loo, 252, 
 308 
 
 Honywood, General Philip, 243 
 
 Hope, James, Lord, 215 
 
 Hope, John, Lord, 249 
 
 Hope, Sir Thomas, Bart., 303 
 
 Home, Dr., 109 
 
 Houston, Lady, 59 
 
 Howaid, Gei eral Sir George, 316 
 
 Howe, Admiral, Earl, 239 
 
 Howe, General Sir William, 239 
 
 Hume, David, 8, 17, 31, 33, 50, 86, 210, 
 221, 255, 262, 263, 268, 283,308 
 
 Hunter, Rev. Thomas, 220 
 
 Hutton, Charles, 300 
 
 Hutton, James, M.D., 300 
 
 Hyndford, Lord, 313 
 
 Inchkenneth, 91 
 
 Inverary, 92 
 
 Inverness, 88 
 
 lona, 91 
 
 Irving, Colonel John, 310 
 
 James, Dr. Robert, 323 
 
 Jockey Club, 14 
 
 Johnson, Samuel, LL.D., i, 8, 10, li, 
 16, 24, 32, 49—53, 59—63, 82, 84 
 —98, IC3— 6, 109 — 129, 131 — 136, 
 139, 141, 145—7, 155—160, 196, 
 207, 209—217, 273, 287, 289, 291, 
 
 324 
 Johnston, John of Grange, 54, 56, 185, 
 
 188, 204 
 Johnston, Maggy, 265 
 Johnstone, Sir James, Bart., of Wester- 
 
 haU, 327 
 Jortin, Rev. Dr., 13 
 Karnes, Lord, 102, 278, 303, 307, 308 
 Keith, Miss Jenny, 327 
 Keith, Mr., Collector, 88 
 Keith, Robert, 327 
 Keith, Mrs. Murray, 327 
 Kellie, Earl of, 19, 254, 271, 275—310 
 
 Ken mure. Lord, 307 
 
 Kennedy, David, advocate, 284 • 
 
 Ker Lord Mark, 309, 311, 313 
 
 Kettle, Mrs. Betty, 282 
 
 Kildfl, St. 88 
 
 Kincardine, Alexander, second Earl of, i 
 
 316, 325 
 Kincardine, Countess of, 85, 184 
 Kinghorn, 87 
 Kinloch, Elizabeth, 264 
 Knight, Joseph, a negro, 115, 279 
 Kirby, Mr., Governor of Xt wgate, 182 
 Langton, Bennet, 95, 118, 119, 158, 
 
 274, 278, 29S, 318, 324, 328 
 Leinster, Duke of, 79 
 Leland, Dr., 79 
 
 Leslie, General Alexander, 326 
 Leslie, Hon. Alexander, 266 
 Lestsch, M., 227 
 Leven, Earl of, 266 
 Lichfield, 109, no, 122 
 Lindsay, Rev. John, 178 
 Lochore, JIariota, 2 
 Loch ore, Philip de, 2 
 Lockhart, Alexander, advocate, 279 
 Lockhart, George, of Carnwath, 252 
 Lonsdale Club, 143 
 Lonsdale, Lord, 133, 143, 145, 149, 151^ 
 
 152—4, 158— 161, 193 
 Love, Mr., the player, 10, 31 
 Love, Rev. William, 251 
 Loudoun, Earl of, 243, 244 
 Lowther, Sir John, 133 
 Lumsdcn, Andrew, 240, 319 
 Lutterel, Colonel, 327 
 Lyttleton, George, Lord, 215 
 Maasdain, Mademoiselle de, 235 
 Macaulay, Lord, 88, 189 
 Macaulay, Rev. Aulay, SS 
 Macbride, Dr., 79 
 Macbryde, Captain John, 142, 185 
 Macdonald, Flora, 90 
 Macdonald, Mr., of Kingsburgh, 89 
 Macdonald, Sir Alexander, 89, 139 — 140 
 Macdonald, Sir James, Bart., 216 
 Macfarlane, William, 192 
 [ Mncfarlano. Lady Elizabtlh, 315
 
 340 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Macfarlane, Walter, of that Ilk, 315 
 
 Mackermore, Lady, 308 
 
 Mackinnon, Mr., 89 
 
 Maclaine, Eev. Dr., 235 
 
 Maclaurin, JoIid, Lord Dreghorn, 203, 
 
 276, 284 
 Maclaurin, Professor Colin, 203 
 Maclean, Donald, 91 
 Maclean, Sir Allan, 91 
 Macleod, Lady, 90 
 Macleod, of Macleod, 85, 90 
 Macpherson, James, 20, 207 
 Mallet, David, 23 
 Malone, Edmund, 136, 148, 150, 156— 
 
 158, 163—172, 181— 182, 185, 192 
 Malta, Chevalier de, 263 
 Mansfield, Earl of, 18, 250, 268, 270 
 Marchmont, Earl of, 2I2, 268 
 Marischal, Earl, 47, 231, 236 
 Marlborough, Duke of, 178, 296 
 Mary Anne, an Irish beauty, 77—79 
 Mason, Rev. Mr., 147 
 Maxwell, Alexander, 296 
 Maxwell, Lady, of Monreith, 322 
 Maxwell, Miss Eglinton, 286 
 Maxwell, Miss Jane, 311 
 Maxwell, Sir Eobert, 307 
 Maxwell, SirWilliam, Bart., of Monreith. 
 
 213 
 
 Maxwell, Sir William, Bart., of Spring- 
 
 kell, 311, 312 
 M'Claren, Eev. John, 259, 260 
 McKie, John, of Bargaly, 307 
 McKye, J. E., 322 
 McMurdo, Mr., 253 
 McQuane, Mr., 91 
 McQueen, Eev. Donald, 90 
 Meadows, Captain, 62 
 Melville, General Eobert, 285 
 Melville, Sir Eobert, 2 
 JLeredith, Sir William, 269 
 Millar, Andrew, bookseller, 59 
 Miller, Miss, 167 
 Minto, Earl of, 241, 257 
 Mitchell, Sir Andrew, 43—47, 228 
 Moira, Earl of, 195 
 Monboddo, Lord, 87, 142, 285, 327 
 
 Monckton, Hon. Mary, 126 
 Moncrieff, David Stuart, of Moredun, 281 
 Monro, Sir Eobert, Bart., 322 
 Montgomerie, Colonel, M.P., 133—5, 
 
 153 
 Montgomerie, David, of Lainshaw, 4, 79 
 Montgomerie, Hugh, of Skermorly, 309 
 Montgomerie, Lady Frances, 208 
 Montgomerie, Miss Margaret, 79, 82 
 Montgomery, Lady Mary, 97 
 Montrose, 87 
 Montrose, Duke of, 1 26 
 Monypenny, David, of Pitmilly, 266 
 Moray, Earl of, 261 
 Mounsey, Mr. George, 195 
 Mounlstuart, Lord, 48, 97, 100, 122 
 Mundell, Mr, James, 6 
 Murdoch, A. of Monkton, 272 
 Murdoch, David, 129 
 Murdoch, James, 183 
 Murdoch, William, 186 
 Murray, Alexander, Lord Henderland, 
 
 275 
 Mun-ay, Colonel, 313 
 Murray, Fanny, 18, 269 
 Murray, Lady Catherine, 306 
 Murray, Mr., of Broughton, 305 
 Murray, Patrick, advocate, 294 
 Murray, Patrick, Lord EHbank, 271 
 Murray, Sir Eobert, of Hillhead, 254 
 Mull, 91 
 
 Nassau, Count, 37 
 Naime, William, Lord Dreghorn, 234, 
 
 296 
 N-airne, Sir William, Bart., 236, 249, 
 
 280 
 Needham, John Turberville, 234 
 Neitschutz, Mr. de, 227 
 Newhall, Lord, 246 
 
 Nisbet, William, of Dirleton, 254, 2S0 
 Nichols, John, 203, 205 
 NichoUs, Eev. N., 82 
 Nivernais, Duke de, 209 
 Normaville, John, 186 
 Ogden, Dr., 90 
 Ogilvie, Dr. John, 208 
 Ogilvie, Lord, 220
 
 INDEX. 
 
 341 
 
 Oglethorpe, General, 62, 85 
 Orde, Lord Chief Baron, 86, 252 
 Orkney, Earl of, 3 
 Ormonde, Duke of, 274 
 Oughton, Sir Adolphus, 86 
 Oxford, Earl of, 297 
 Palliser, Sir Hugh, 289 
 Palmer, Eev. Mr., 94 
 Paoli, General, 48, 49, 51, 52, 58 
 Paradise, John, 321 
 Parnell, Thomas, D.D., 297 
 Parr, Dr., 164 
 Peden, James, 185 
 Pembroke, Earl of, 62, 95, 290 
 Perreau, the brothers, no 
 Pettigrew, Eev. John, 251 
 Pigot, Sir George, Bart., 288 
 Pindar, Peter, 138, 140, 146 
 Piozzi, Mrs., 85, 105, 129, 139, 155 
 Pitcaim, Eobert, 3, 59, 62, 63, 79, 80, 
 99, III, 112, 180, 291, 293, 318, 
 321, 328 
 Pitt, Et. Hon, "William, 132, 149, 153, 
 
 231 
 Poniatowski, King of Poland, 232 
 Pope, Alexander, ii8, 305 
 Porter, Mrs. Lucy, no 
 Prade, Abbe de, 227 
 Preston, Charles, 228 
 Preston, Sir George, Bart., 199, 321 
 Preston, Lady, 199, 321 
 Preston, Miss, 228 
 Price, Eichard, D.D., 301 
 Pringle, Sir John, Bart., 61, 319 
 Pringle, Sir Walter, 246 
 Prussia, King of, 215, 223, 227, 263 
 Prussia, Prince of, 238 
 Queensberry, Duke of, 33 
 Quin, James, the player, 217 
 Eae, Sir David, Bart., 284 
 Eamsay, Allan, the painter, 255 
 Eamsay, Eev. James, 240 
 Easay, Isle of, 89 
 Eegent, The Prince, 195 
 Eennie, David, of Melville, 206 
 Eeynolds, Sir Joshua, 85, 97, 118, 119, 
 150, 163, 169, 172, 287, 292, 320 
 
 Eichardson, Eev. Mr., 235 
 Eichmond, Mr., of Bardarrock, 262 
 Eickslepeu, Mesdemoiselles, 232 
 Eiddell, Eobert, of Glenriddell, 312 
 Eidley, Lady, 298 
 Eidley, Sir Matthew White, Bart., M.P., 
 
 298 
 Eivarola, Count, 48 
 Eobert the Bruce, 2 
 Eobertson, Baldwin, advocate, 217 
 Eobertson, Barbara, of Orbiston, 267 
 Eobertson, Dr. William, 17, 32, 85, 86' 
 
 93, 100, 210, 250, 271 
 Eobinson, Mr., bookseller, 170 
 Eockville, Lord, 254 
 Eoger, Eev. James, 33 
 Eogers, Sir William, 3 
 Eolland, Eev. James, 323 
 Eose, Mr. , at Utrecht, 2 1 7 
 Eoss, David, tragedian, 17, 18, 59, 269 
 Eosslyn, Earl of, 199 
 Eousseau, 48, 49, 50, "51, 58, 64, 68, 234 
 Eowlandson, Thomas, 137 
 Eudd, Margaret Caroline, no 
 Eumbold, Sir Thomas, Bart., 320 
 Sackville, Lord George, 263 
 Samson, William, 185 
 Sanderson, the Quaker, 310 
 Scott, Colonel, 236 
 Scott, General, of Balcomie, 279, 280 
 Scott, Sir Waller, 92 
 Scott, Sir William, 86, 163, 167, 171 
 Sclwyn, George, M.P., 314 
 Seward, WilUam, F.E.S., 288 
 Seymour, Algernon, 297 
 Seymour, Lady Elizabeth, ^97 
 Shakespeare, 80, 81 
 Sharp, Archbishop, 245 
 Shelbumc, Earl of, 301 
 Sheldon, Captain, 81 
 Sheldon, Mrs., 81 
 Sheridan Thomas, 24, 64, 2 n, 213, 215, 
 
 221 
 Sheridan, Eichard Brinsley, 2n 
 Short, James, optician, 324 
 Shuter, Edward, comedian, 316 
 1 Siblhorpe, Mr., 78
 
 342 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Sidmouth, Lord, 195 
 
 Siverton, Miss, 99 
 
 Sinclair, Lady Margaret, 3 
 
 Sinclair, Pate, 3 
 
 Sinclair of Briggend, 251 
 
 Shebbeare, Dr., 282 
 
 Skj'e, Isle of, 90 
 
 Smith, Dean, 123 
 
 Smith, Dr. Adam, 11, in, 112 
 
 Smollett, Dr. Tobias, 92 
 
 Smollett, Mr. Commissary, 92 
 
 Soaping Club, The, 21 
 
 Solander, Dr., 270, 273 
 
 Somerville, John, Thirteenth Lord, 16 
 
 Somerville, Mrs. Mary, 4 
 
 Somnelsdyck, 85 
 
 Spencer, Edmund, of Rendlesham, 245 
 
 Spencer, Lady Diana, 296 
 
 Spottiswoode of Spottiswoode, 290 
 
 St. Andrews, 87 
 
 Stair, Earl of, 243, 256 
 
 Steevens, Mr., 169 
 
 Stevenson, John, 123 
 
 Stevenson, John Hall, 210 
 
 Stewart, Houstonn, 302 
 
 Stewart, Miss, of Blackball, 218 
 
 Stewart, Sir John, Bart, 66 
 
 Stewart, Sir Michael, Bart., 218, 302 
 
 Stobie, Mr., 322 
 
 Stormont, Lord, 312 
 
 Stratford-on-Avon, 80 
 
 Stuart, Andrew, M.P., 236, 279, 288 
 
 Stuart, Captain Keith, 241 
 
 Stuart, Hon. Col. James A., 97, 122, 
 
 123, 143, 185 
 Stuart, Hon. Mrs., 97, 99, 298 
 Stuart, James, of Dunearn, 193 
 Suard, Jean Baptiste Antoine, 298, 299 
 Sunderland, Lord, 248 
 Swinton, Lord, 284 
 Sydenham, Thomas, 118 
 Syme, Mrs., 211 
 Tait, Archbishop, 275 
 Tait, Rev. Mr., 88 
 Talbot de Malahide, Lord, 195 
 Talbot, Hon. Richard Talbot, 195 
 Taylor, Dr., oculist, 248 
 
 Taylor, Dr., of Ashbourne, 115 
 
 Taylor, Michael Angelo, 165 
 
 Temple, Captain Robert, 36, 47, 209 
 
 Temple, Mr., jun., 180 
 
 Temple, Mrs. , 8, 82, 99 
 
 Temple, Rev. "William Johnson, 7, 8, 9, 
 14, 16, 29, 30, 35—38, 40, 51—57, 
 65—67—78, 82—84, 96—106, III, 
 120 — 126, 144 — 161, 163 — 167, 
 172, 176—183, 185, 190 
 
 Templeton, John, 185 
 
 Theodore, King, 64 
 
 Thomson, George, 24 
 
 Thrale, Mr., 82, 112, 321 
 
 Thrale, Mrs., 85, 105, 1 29, 139, 1 55 
 
 Thurlow, Lord Chancellor, 135 
 
 Tinwald, Lord, 199, 246 
 
 Tobermory, 91 
 
 Tronchin, Theodore, 221, 222 
 
 Trotz, C. H., 35, 42, 214 
 
 Trumbull, Watte, 3 
 
 Tucker, Miss Charlotte Maria, 198 
 
 Twamley, Mr., 132 
 
 Ulva, Isle of, 91 
 
 Utrecht, 35, 37, 42, 43, 214 
 
 Vansittart, Councillor, 270 
 
 Yassall, Major-General, 194 
 
 Yasseur, Therese La, 50 
 
 Vaux, Marshal De, 80 
 
 Voltaire, 48, 51, 68, 214, 219, 227, 230, 
 
 235 
 
 Wake, Captain, 230 
 Walker's Tavern, 326 
 Wallace, George, advocate, 278 
 Wallace, Isabel, 3 
 Wallace, Lady, 286 
 Wallace, Rev. Robert, D.D., 278 
 Wallace, Sir John, of Cairn hill, 4 
 Wallace, Sir Thomas, 253 
 Walmesley, Gilbert, 323 
 Walpole, Horace, 52, 63 
 Walpole, Sir Robert, 211 
 Walshe, Lt. -Colonel, 79 
 Warburton, Bishop, 268 
 Ware, Charles Edward, 197 
 Ware, Edith Caroline, 197 
 Ware, Mr. Cumberlye, 197 
 
 I
 
 INDEX. 
 
 343 
 
 "Warton, Joseph, 170 
 Warton, Thomas, 109 
 Warwii'k, Earl of, 304 
 "Waters, Mr., banker in Paris, 50 
 Webster, Captain, 2H 
 Webster, Dr. Alexander, 5, 86, 199. 
 211, 248, 249, 276, 277, 278, 325 
 Webster, Mrs. Alexander, 199, 320 
 Wedderburn, Alexander, 199 
 Wellesley, Marquis of, 118 
 Wemyss, Sir John, Bart., 320 
 Wesley, Rev. John, 121 
 Westhall, Lord, 325 
 Wetherell, Dr., 109 
 Wharton, Marquess of, 274 
 White, Thomas, 221 
 Whitefoord, Allan, 311 
 Whitefoord, Caleb, 224 
 
 Whitefoord, John, 149, 152 
 Wilberforce, William, M.l'., 176 
 Wilkes, John, 27, 51, 112, 113, 141,165, 
 
 274, 291, 299,301, 322 
 William the Conqueror, i 
 William the Lion, 2 
 Williams, Miss, 26 
 
 Williams, Mrs., of Crawley Grange, 197 
 Windham, Mr., 163 
 Wokott, Dr. John, 138, 175 
 Wright, Mr., 271 
 York, Duke of, 14, 15 
 Yorke, Sir Joseph, 79, 237 
 Young, Dr., physician, 206, 233 
 Zelide, 75, 77 
 Zoilen, Mademoiselle, 220 
 Zuyl, Mademoiselle de, 225, 235 
 
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