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pen through the story of the old woman at St. Andrews, being the only silly thing in the book. He has taken the opportunity of ingrafting into the work several good observations, which I dare say he had made upon men and things before he set foot on Scotch ground, by which it is considerably enriched1. A long journey, like a tall maypole, though not very beautiful itself, yet is pretty enough when ornamented with flowers and garlands: it furnishes a sort of cloak-pins for hanging the furniture of your mind upon; and whoever sets out upon a journey, without furnishing his mind previously with much study and useful knowledge, erects a may-pole in December, and puts up very useless cloak-pins.

"I hope the book will induce many of his countrymen to make the same jaunt, and help to intermix the more liberal part of them still more with us, and perhaps abate somewhat of that virulent antipathy which many of them entertain against the Scotch; who certainly would never have formed those combinations which he takes notice of, more than their ancestors, had they not been necessary for their mutual safety, at least for their success, in a country where they are treated as foreigners. They would find us not deficient, at least in point of hospitality, and they would be ashamed ever after to abuse us in the mass. "So much for the Tour. I have now, for the first time in my life, passed a winter in the country; and never did three months roll on with more swiftness and satisfaction. I used not only to wonder at, but pity, those whose lot condemned them to winter any where but in either of the capitals. But every place has its charms to a cheerful mind. I am busy planting and taking measures for opening the summer campaign in farming; and I find I have an excellent resource, when revolutions in politicks perhaps, and revolutions of the sun for certain, will make it decent for me to retreat behind the ranks of the more forward in life.

"I am glad to hear the last was a very busy week with you. I see you as counsel in some causes which must have opened a charming field for your humourous vein. As it is more uncommon, so I verily believe it is more useful than the more serious exercise of reason; and, to a man who is to appear in publick, more eclat is to be gained, sometimes more money too, by a bonmot, than a learned speech. It is the fund of natural humour which Lord North pos

1 Mr. Orme, one of the ablest historians of this age, is of the same opinion. He said to me, There are in that book thoughts which, by long revolution in the great mind of Johnson, have been formed and polished-like pebbles rolled in the ocean!"-BOSWELL.

sesses, that makes him so much the favourite of the house, and so able, because so amiable, a leader of a party.

"I have now finished my Tour of Seven Pages. In what remains, I beg leave to offer my compliments, and those of ma très chere femme, to you and Mrs. Boswell. Pray unbend the busy brow, and frolick a little in a letter to, my dear Boswell, your affectionate friend, "GEORGE DEMPSTER "

I shall also present the publick with a correspondence with the laird of Rasay, concerning a passage in the "Journey to the Western Islands," which shows Dr. Johnson in a very amiable light.

TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ, "Rasay, 10th April, 1775. "DEAR SIR,-I take this occasion of returning you my most hearty thanks for the civilities shown to my daughter by you and Mrs. Boswell. Yet, though she has informed me that I am under this obligation, I should very probably have deferred troubling you with making my acknowledgments at present, if I had not seen Dr. Johnson's Journey to the Western Isles,' in which he has been pleased to make a very friend ly mention of my family, for which I an. surely obliged to him, as being more that an equivalent for the reception you and he met with. Yet there is one paragraph I should have been glad he had omitted, which I am sure was owing to misinformation; that is, that I had acknowledged Macleod to be my chief, though my ancestors disputed the pre-eminence for a long tract of time.

"I never had occasion to enter seriously on this argument with the present laird or his grandfather, nor could I have any temptation to such a renunciation from either of them. I acknowledge the benefit of being chief of a clan is in our days of very little significancy, and to trace out the progress of this honour to the founder of a family, of any standing, would perhaps be a matter of some difficulty.

"The true state of the present case is this: the M'Leod family consists of two different branches; the M'Leods of Lewis, of which I am descended, and the M'Leods of Harris. And though the former have lost a very extensive estate by forfeiture in

2 Every reader will, I am sure, join with me in warm admiration of the truly patriotick writer of this letter. I know not which most to applaud,

that good sense and liberality of mind which could see and admit the defects of his native country, to which no man is a more zealous friend; or that candour which induced him to give just praise to the minister whom he honestly and strenuously opposed.-BOSWELL.

| never forget your goodness, and the happy hours which I spent in Rasay.

"You and Dr. M'Leod were both so obliging as to promise me an account in writing of all the particulars which each of you remember, concerning the transactions of 1745-6. Pray do not forget this, and be as minute and full as you can;.put down every thing: I have a great curiosity to know as much as I can, authentically.

King James the Sixth's time, there are still several respectable families of it existing, who would justly blame me for such an unmeaning cession, when they all acknowledge me head of that family; which, though in fact it be but an ideal point of honour, is not hitherto so far disregarded in our country, but it would determine some of my friends to look on me as a much smaller man than either they or myself judge me at present to be. I will, therefore, ask it as a "I beg that you may present my best re favour of you to acquaint the Doctor with spects to Lady Rasay, my compliments to the difficulty he has brought me to. In your young family, and to Dr. McLeod, travelling among rival clans, such a silly and my hearty good wishes to Malcolm, tale as this might easily be whispered into with whom I hope again to shake hands the ear of a passing stranger; but as it has cordially. I have the honour to be, dear no foundation in fact, I hope the Doctor sir, your obliged and faithful humble serwill be so good as to take his own way in vant, "JAMES BOSWELL." undeceiving the publick-I principally mean my friends and connexions, who will be first angry at me, and next sorry to find such an instance of my littleness recorded in a book which has a very fair chance of being much read. I expect you will let me know what he will write you in return, and we here beg to make offer to you and Mrs. Boswell of our most respectful compliments. I am, dear sir, your most obedient humble ser"JOHN M'LEOD."

vant

66 TO THE LAIRD OF RASAY.

"London, 8th May, 1775. "DEAR SIR,-The day before yesterday I had the honour to receive your letter, and I immediately communicated it to Dr. Johnson. He said he loved your spirit, and, was exceedingly sorry that he had been the cause of the smallest uneasiness to you. There is not a more candid man in the world than he is, when properly addressed, as you will see from his letter to you, which I now inclose. He has allowed me to take a copy of it, and he says you may read it to your clan, or publish it, if you please. Be assured, sir, that I shall take care of what he has intrusted to me, which is to have an acknowledgment of his error inserted in the Edinburgh newspapers. You will, I dare say, be fully satisfied with Dr. Johnson's behaviour. He is desirous to know that you are; and therefore when you have read his acknowledgment in the papers, I beg you may write to me; and if you choose it, I am persuaded a letter from you to the Doctor also will be taken kind. I shall be at Edinburgh the week after next.

"Any civilities which my wife and I had in our power to show to your daughter, Miss M'Leod, were due to her own merit, and were well repaid by her agreeable company. But I am sure I should be a very unworthy man if I did not wish to show a grateful sense of the hospitable and genteel manner in which you were pleased to treat

me.

ADVERTISEMENT

WRITTEN BY DR. JOHNSON,

And inserted by his desire in the Edinburgh newspapers (referred to in the foregoing letter 1).

"The authour of the Journey to the Western Islands,' having related that the M'Leods of Rasay acknowledge the chieftainship or superiority of the M'Leods of Sky, finds that he has been misinformed or mistaken. He means in a future edition to correct his errour, and wishes to be told of more, if more have been discovered." Dr. Johnson's letter was as follows:

"TO THE LAIRD OF RASAY.

"London, 6th May, 1775.

"DEAR SIR, Mr. Boswell has this day shown me a letter, in which you complain of a passage in the Journey to the Hebrides.' My meaning is mistaken. I did not intend to say that you had personally made any cession of the rights of your house, or any acknowledgment of the superiority of McLeod of Dunvegan. I only designed to express what I thought generally admitted-that the house of Rasay allowed the superiority of the house of Dunvegan. Even this I now find to be erroneous, and will therefore omit or retract it in the next edition.

"Though what I had said had been true, if it had been disagreeable to you, I should have wished it unsaid; for it is not my business to adjust precedence. As it is mistaken, I find myself disposed to correct, both by my respect for you, and my reverence for truth.

"As I know not when the book will be reprinted, I have desired Mr. Boswell to anticipate the correction in the Edinburgh papers. This is all that can be done.

"I hope I may now venture to desire

The original MS. is now in my possession.-

Be assured, my dear sir, that I shall | BoswELL.

that my compliments may be made, and my gratitude expressed, to Lady Rasay, Mr. Malcolm M'Leod, Mr. Donald M Queen, and all the gentlemen and all the ladies whom I saw in the island of Rasay; a place which I remember with too much pleasure and too much kindness, not to be sorry that my ignorance, or hasty persuasion, should, for a single moment, have violated its tranquillity.

"I beg you all to forgive an undesigned and involuntary injury, and to consider me as, sir, your most obliged and most humble servant, "SAM JOHNSON 1."

It would be improper for me to boast of my own labours; but I cannot refrain from publishing such praise as I received from such a man as Sir William Forbes, of Pitsligo, after the perusal of the original manuscript of my Journal.

"TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"Edinburgh, 7th March, 1777.

It may be objected by some persons, as it has been by one of my friends, that he who has the power of thus exhibiting an exact transcript of conversations is not a desirable member of society. I repeat the answer which I made to that friend: "Few, very few, need be afraid that their sayings will be recorded. Can it be imagined that I would take the trouble to gather what grows on every hedge, because I have collected such fruits as the Nonpareil and the BON CHRETIEN?"

On the other hand, how useful is such a faculty, if well exercised. To it we owe all those interesting apophthegms and memorabilia of the ancients, which Plutarch, Xenophon, and Valerius Maximus, have transmitted to us. To it we owe all those instructive and entertaining collections which the French have made under the title of "Ana," affixed to some celebrated name. To it we owe the "Table-Talk " of Selden, the "Conversation" between Ben Jonson and Drummond of Haw

"MY DEAR SIR,-I ought to have thank-thornden, Spence's "Anecdotes of Pope," ed you sooner for your very obliging letter, and for the singular confidence you are pleased to place in me, when you trust me with such a curious and valuable deposit as the papers you have sent me 2. Be assured I have a due sense of this favour, and shall faithfully and carefully return them to you. You may rely that I shall neither copy any part, nor permit the papers to be seen.

"They contain a curious picture of society, and form a journal on the most instructive plan that can possibly be thought of; for I am not sure that an ordinary observer would become so well acquainted either with Dr. Johnson, or with the manners of the Hebrides, by a personal intercourse, as by a perusal of your Journal.

"I am very truly, dear sir, your most obedient and affectionate humble servant, "WILLIAM FORBES."

When I consider how many of the persons mentioned in this Tour are now gone to "that undiscovered country, from whose bourne no traveller returns," I feel an impression at once awful and tender.-Requiescant in pace!

1 Rasay was highly gratified, and afterwards visited and dined with Dr. Johnson, at his house in London.-BOSWELL.

2 In justice both to Sir William Forbes and myself, it is proper to mention, that the papers which were submitted to his perusal contained only an account of our Tour from the time that Dr. Johnson and I set out from Edinburgh (p. 46), and consequently did not contain the eulogium on Sir William Forbes, (p. 16), which he never saw till this book appeared in print; nor did he even know, when he wrote the above letter, that this Journal was to be published.-BoSWELL.

and other valuable remains in our own language. How delighted should we have been, if thus introduced into the company of Shakspeare and of Dryden, of whom we know scarcely any thing but their admirable writings! What pleasure would it have given us, to have known their petty habits, their characteristick manners, their modes of composition, and their genuine opinion. of preceding writers and of their contemporaries! All these are now irrecoverably lost. Considering how many of the strongest and most brilliant effusions of exalted intellect must have perished, how much is it to be regretted that all men of distinguished wisdom and wit have not been attended by friends, of taste enough to relish, and abilities enough to register their con

versation.

Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
Multi, sed omnes illacrymabiles
Urgentur, ignotique longâ

Nocte, carent quia vate sacro.

They whose inferior exertions are recorded, as serving to explain or illustrate the sayings of such men, may be proud of being thus associated, and of their names being transmitted to posterity, by being appended to an illustrious character.

Before I conclude, I think it proper to say, that I have suppressed 3 every thing

Having found on a revision of the first edition of this work, that, notwithstanding my best care, a few observations had escaped me, which arose from the instant impression, the publication of which might perhaps be considered as passing the bounds of a strict decorum, I immediately ordered that they should be omitted in the subsequent editions. I was pleased to find that they did not

which I thought could really hurt any one | subjects of them have good sense and good now living. Vanity and self-conceit in- temper enough not to be displeased. deed may sometimes suffer. With respect to what is related, I considered it my duty to "extenuate nothing, nor set down aught in malice;" and with those lighter strokes of Dr. Johnson's satire, proceeding from a warmth and quickness of imagination, not from any malevolence of heart, and which, on account of their excellence, could not be omitted, I trust that they who are the

I have only to add, that I shall ever reflect with great pleasure on a Tour, which has been the means of preserving so much of the enlightened and instructive conversation of one whose virtues will, I hope, ever be an object of imitation, and whose powers of mind were so extraordinary, that ages may revolve before such a man shall again appear.

His stay in Scotland was from the 18th of August, on which day he arrived, till the 22d of November, when he set out on his return to London; and I believe ninetyfour days were never passed by any man in a more vigorous exertion. 1.

amount in the whole to a page. If any of the same kind are yet left, it is owing to inadvertence alone, no man being more uuwilling to give pain to others than I am.

A contemptible scribbler, of whom I have

He saw the four universities of Scotland, its three principal cities, and as much of the Highland and insular life as was sufficient for his philosophical contemplation.

He was respectfully entertained by the great, the learned, and the elegant, wherever he went; nor was he less delighted with the hospitality which he experienced in humbler life 2.

His various adventures, and the force and

vivacity of his mind, as exercised during this peregrination, upon innumerable topicks, have been faithfully, and to the best of my abilities, displayed in [the foregoing]

learned no more than that, after having disgraced
and deserted the clerical character, he picks up in
London a scanty livelihood by scurrilous lam-
poons under a feigned name, has impudently and
falsely asserted that the passages omitted were
defamatory, and that the omission was not vol-
untary, but compulsory. The last insinuation I
took the trouble publickly to disprove; yet, like
one of Pope's dunces, he persevered in the lie
o'erthrown." As to the charge of defamation,
there is an obvious and certain mode of refuting
it. Any person who thinks it worth while to
compare one edition with the other will find that
the passages omitted were not in the least degree
of that nature, but exactly such as I have repre-
sented them in the former part of this note, the
hasty effusion of momentary feelings, which the
delicacy of politeness should have suppressed.-preserved in this edition.-ED.]
BOSWELL. [The only passages of this kind that
the editor has observed are those relating to Sir
Alexander Macdonald, ante, p. 372, and to
Mr. Tytler, ante, p. 460.-ED. I believe the
scribbler alluded to was William Thompson,
author of the "Man in the Moon," and other
satirical novels, half clever, half crazy kinds of
works. He was once a member of the kirk of
Scotland, but being deposed by the presbytery of
Auchterarder, became an author of all works in
London, could seldom finish a work, on what-
ever subject, without giving a slap by the way to
that same presbytery with the unpronounceable
Boswell's denial of having retracted upon
compulsion refutes what was said by Peter Pin-
dar and others about "M'Donald's rage."-
WALTER SCOTT.]

visited the isles of Sky, Rasay, Col, Mull,
Inchkenneth, and Icolmkill. He travelled through
Argyleshire by Inverary, and from thence by
Lochlomond and Dunbarton to Glasgow, then by
Loudon to Auchinleck in Ayrshire, the seat of my
family, and then by Hamilton, back to Edinburgh,
where he again spent some time. I had the
pleasure of accompanying him during the whole
of his journey." These sentences, and another
subsequent paragraph, are removed from the text,
as rendered superfluous by the insertion of the
Tour, but are preserved in the notes, that the
whole of Mr. Boswell's original work may be

name.

[Here followed in the original text: "He came by the way of Berwick-upon-Tweed to Edinburgh, where he remained a few days, and then went by St. Andrews, Aberdeen, Inverness, and Fort Augustus, to the Hebrides, to visit which was the principal object he had in view. He

The authour was not a small gainer by this extraordinary Journey; for Dr. Johnson thus writes to Mrs. Thrale, 3d Nov. 1773: "Boswell will praise my resolution and perseverance, and I shall in return celebrate his good humour and per petual cheerfulness. He has better faculties than I had imagined; more justness of discernment, and more fecundity of images. It is very con venient to travel with him; for there is no house where he is not received with kindness and respect."--Let. 90, to Mrs. Thrale.-MALONE. [The editor asked Lord Stowell in what estimation he found Boswell amongst his countrymen. "Generally liked as a good-natured jolly fellow," replied his lordship. "But was he respected?"

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Why, I think he had about the proportion of respect that you might guess would be shown to a jolly fellow." His lordship evidently thought that there was more regard than respect.-ED.] [He was long remembered amongst the lower orders of Hebrideans by the title of the Sassenach More, the big Englishman.— WALTER SCOTT.]

2

"Journal of our Tour,"
which exhibits as striking a view of his
powers in conversation, as his works do of
his excellence in writing. Nor can I deny
to myself the very flattering gratification
of inserting here the character which my
friend Mr. Courtenay has been pleased to
give of that work:

66

'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 pupil's hand: We love the writer, praise his happy vein, Graced with the naïveté of the sage Montaigne; Hence not alone are brighter parts display'd, But e'en the specks of character pourtray'd: We see the Rambler with fastidious smile, Mark the lone tree, and note the heath-clad isle; But when th' heroic tale of Flora' 2 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.'" During his stay at Edinburgh, after his return from the Hebrides, he was at great pains to obtain information concerning Scotland; and it will appear from his subsequent letters, that he was not less solicitous for intelligence on this subject after his return to London.

66 TO JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.

"27th Nov. 1773.

"DEAR SIR, I came home last night, without any incommodity, danger, or weariness, and am ready to begin a new journey. I shall go to Oxford on Monday. I know Mrs. Boswell wished me well to go 3; her wishes have not been disappointed.

[Here followed in the original text, "to the Hebrides, to which, as the public has been pleased to honour it by a very extensive circulation, I beg leave to refer, as to a separate and remarkable portion of his life, which may be there seen in detail, and—”—ED.]

2 The celebrated Flora Macdonald."COURTENAY.

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"You shall have what information I can procure as to the order of the clans. A gentleman of the name of Grant tells me that there is no settled order among them; and he says that the Macdonalds were not placed upon the right of the army at Culloden; the Stuarts were. I shall, however, examine witnesses of every name that I can find here. Dr. Webster shall be quickened too. I like your little memorandums; they are symptoms of your being in earnest with your book of northern travels.

"Your box shall be sent next week by

sea.

You will find in it some pieces of the broom-bush which you saw growing on the old castle of Auchinleck. The wood has a curious appearance when sawn across. You may either have a little writing-standish made of it, or get it formed into boards for a treatise on witchcraft, by way of a suitable binding."

ly reconcileable with good taste and good manners.-ED.]

4 Sir Alexander Gordon, one of the professors at Aberdeen.--BOSWELL.

5 This was a box containing a number of curious things which he had picked up in Scot land, particularly some horn-spoons.-BOSWELL

Macdonalds, placed on the left wing, refused to charge, and positively left the field unassailed and unbroken. Lord George Murray in vain endeavoured to urge them on by saying that their behaviour would make the left the right, and that he himself would take the name of Macdonald. On this subject there are some curious notices, in a very interesting journal written by one of the seven men of Moidart, as they were calledMacdonalds of the Clanronald sept, who were the first who declared for the prince at his landing in their chief's country. It is in the Lockhart papers, vol. ii. p. 510.-WALTER SCOTT.]

[The Macdonalds always laid claim to be placed on the right of the whole clans, and those 3 In this he showed a very acute penetration. of that tribe assign the breach of this order at Cul My wife paid him the most assiduous and respect-loden as one cause of the loss of the day. The ful attention while he was our guest; so that I wonder how he discovered her wishing for his departure. The truth is, that his irregular hours and uncouth habits, such as turning the candles with their heads downwards, when they did not burn bright enough, and letting the wax drop upon the carpet, could not but be disagreeable to a lady. Besides, she had not that high admiration of him which was felt by most of those who knew him; and what was very natural to a female mind, she thought he had too much influence over her husband. She once, in a little warmth, made, with more point than justice, this remark upon that subject: "I have seen many a bear led by a man; but I never before saw a man led by a bear."--BOSWELL. [The reader will, however, 'hereafter see that the repetition of this observation as to Mrs. Boswell's feelings towards him was made so frequently and pertinaciously, as is hard

The Reverend Dr. Alexander Webster, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, a man of distinguished abilities, who had promised him information concerning the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.-BOSWELL. [See ante, p. 337.

Ep.]

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