'Dinner being ready, he wondered that his guests were not yet come.
His wonder was soon succeeded by impatience. He walked about the
room in anxious agitation; sometimes he looked at his watch, sometimes
he looked out at the window with an eager gaze of expectation,
and revolved in his mind the various accidents of human life. His
family beheld him with mute concern. "Surely (said he, with a sigh,)
they will not fail me." The mind of man can bear a certain pressure;
but there is a point when it can bear no more. A rope was in his view,
and he died a Roman death[1117].
It was very late before we reached the seat of Sir John Dalrymple, who,
certainly with some reason, was not in very good humour. Our
conversation was not brilliant. We supped, and went to bed in ancient
rooms, which would have better suited the climate of Italy in summer,
than that of Scotland in the month of November.
I recollect no conversation of the next day, worth preserving, except
one saying of Dr. Johnson, which will be a valuable text for many decent
old dowagers, and other good company, in various circles to descant
upon. He said, 'I am sorry I have not learnt to play at cards. It is
very useful in life: it generates kindness, and consolidates
society[1118].' He certainly could not mean deep play.
My friend and I thought we should be more comfortable at the inn at
Blackshields, two miles farther on. We therefore went thither in the
evening, and he was very entertaining; but I have preserved nothing but
the pleasing remembrance, and his verses on George the Second and
Cibber[1119], and his epitaph on Parnell[1120], which he was then so
good as to dictate to me. We breakfasted together next morning, and then
the coach came, and took him up. He had, as one of his companions in it,
as far as Newcastle, the worthy and ingenious Dr. Hope, botanical
professor at Edinburgh. Both Dr. Johnson and he used to speak of their
good fortune in thus accidentally meeting; for they had much instructive
conversation, which is always a most valuable enjoyment, and, when found
where it is not expected, is peculiarly relished.
I have now completed my account of our Tour to the Hebrides. I have
brought Dr. Johnson down to Scotland, and seen him into the coach which
in a few hours carried him back into England. He said to me often, that
the time he spent in this Tour was the pleasantest part of his
life[1121], and asked me if I would lose the recollection of it for five
hundred pounds. I answered I would not; and he applauded my setting such
a value on an accession of new images in my mind[1122].
Had it not been for me, I am persuaded Dr. Johnson never would have
undertaken such a journey; and I must be allowed to assume some merit
from having been the cause that our language has been enriched with such
a book as that which he published on his return; a book which I never
read but with the utmost admiration, as I had such opportunities of
knowing from what very meagre materials it was composed.
But my praise may be supposed partial; and therefore I shall insert two
testimonies, not liable to that objection, both written by gentlemen of
Scotland, to whose opinions I am confident the highest respect will be
paid, Lord Hailes[1123], and Mr. Dempster[1124]. 'TO JAMES
BOSWELL, ESQ.
'SIR,
'I have received much pleasure and much instruction, from perusing _The
Journey to the Hebrides_.
'I admire the elegance and variety of description, and the lively
picture of men and manners. I always approve of the moral, often of the
political, reflections. I love the benevolence of the authour.
'They who search for faults, may possibly find them in this, as well as
in every other work of literature.
'For example, the friends of the old family say that _the aera of
planting_ is placed too late, at the Union of the two kingdoms[1125]. I
am known to be no friend of the old family; yet I would place the aera
of planting at the Restoration; after the murder of Charles I. had been
expiated in the anarchy which succeeded it.
'Before the Restoration, few trees were planted, unless by the
monastick drones: their successors, (and worthy patriots they were,) the
barons, first cut down the trees, and then sold the estates. The
gentleman at St. Andrews, who said that there were but two trees in
Fife[1126], ought to have added, that the elms of Balmerino[1127] were
sold within these twenty years, to make pumps for the fire-engines.
'In J. Major de _Gestis Scotorum_, L. i. C. 2. last edition, there is a
singular passage:--
'"Davidi Cranstoneo conterraneo, dum de prima theologiae licentia foret,
duo ei consocii et familiares, et mei cum eo in artibus auditores,
scilicet Jacobus Almain Senonensis, et Petrus Bruxcellensis,
Praedicatoris ordinis, in Sorbonae curia die Sorbonico commilitonibus
suis publice objecerunt, _quod pane avenaceo plebeii Scoti_, sicut a
quodam religioso intellexerant, _vescebantur, ut virum, quem cholericum
noverant, honestis salibus tentarent, qui hoc inficiari tanquam patriae
dedecus nisus est_."
'Pray introduce our countryman, Mr. Licentiate David Cranston, to
the acquaintance of Mr. Johnson.
'The syllogism seems to have been this:
'They who feed on oatmeal are barbarians;
But the Scots feed on oatmeal:
Ergo--
The licentiate denied the _minor_,
I am, Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
'DAV. DALRYMPLE.'
'Newhailes, 6th Feb. 1775.'
To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ., EDINBURGH.
Dunnichen, 16th February, 1775.
'MY DEAR BOSWELL,
'I cannot omit a moment to return you my best thanks for the
entertainment you have furnished me, my family, and guests, by the
perusal of Dr. Johnson's _Journey to the Western Islands_; and now for
my sentiments of it. I was well entertained. His descriptions are
accurate and vivid. He carried me on the Tour along with him. I am
pleased with the justice he has done to your humour and vivacity. "The
noise of the wind being all its own," is a _bon-mot_, that it would have
been a pity to have omitted, and a robbery not to have ascribed to its
author[1128].
'There is nothing in the book, from beginning to end, that a Scotchman
need to take amiss[1129]. What he says of the country is true, and his
observations on the people are what must naturally occur to a sensible,
observing, and reflecting inhabitant of a _convenient_ Metropolis, where
a man on thirty pounds a year may be better accommodated with all the
little wants of life, than _Col._ or _Sir Allan_. He reasons candidly
about the _second sight_; but I wish he had enquired more, before he
ventured to say he even doubted of the possibility of such an unusual
and useless deviation from all the known laws of nature[1130]. The
notion of the second sight I consider as a remnant of superstitious
ignorance and credulity, which a philosopher will set down as such, till
the contrary is clearly proved, and then it will be classed among the
other certain, though unaccountable parts of our nature, like
dreams[1131], and-I do not know what. 'In regard to the language, it
has the merit of being all his own. Many words of foreign extraction are
used, where, I believe, common ones would do as well, especially on
familiar occasions. Yet I believe he could not express himself so
forcibly in any other stile. I am charmed with his researches concerning
the Erse language, and the antiquity of their manuscripts. I am quite
convinced; and I shall rank _Ossian_, and his _Fingals_ and _Oscars_,
amongst the Nursery Tales, not the true history of our country, in all
time to come.
'Upon the whole, the book cannot displease, for it has no pretensions.
The author neither says he is a Geographer, nor an Antiquarian, nor very
learned in the History of Scotland, nor a Naturalist, nor a
Fossilist[1132]. The manners of the people, and the face of the country,
are all he attempts to describe, or seems to have thought of. Much were
it to be wished, that they who have travelled into more remote, and of
course, more curious, regions, had all possessed his good sense. Of the
state of learning, his observations on Glasgow University[1133] shew he
has formed a very sound judgement. He understands our climate too, and
he has accurately observed the changes, however slow and imperceptible
to us, which Scotland has undergone, in consequence of the blessings of
liberty and internal peace. I could have drawn my pen through the story
of the old woman at St. Andrews, being the only silly thing in the
book[1134]. 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
enriched[1135]. A long journey, like a tall May-pole, 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[1136].
'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_[1137] 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 _bon-mot_, than a learned speech. It is the fund of natural humour
which Lord North possesses, that makes him so much the favourite of the
house, and so able, because so amiable, a leader of a party[1138].
'I have now finished _my_ Tour of _Seven Pages_. In what remains, I beg
leave to offer my compliments, and those of _ma tres 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[1139].'
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 shews Dr. Johnson in a very amiable light.
'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'Rasay, April 10th, 1775.
'DEAR SIR,
'I take this occasion of returning you my most hearty thanks for the
civilities shewn 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 friendly mention of my family, for
which I am surely obliged to him, as being more than an equivalent for
the reception you and he met with. Yet there is one paragraph I should
have been glad he had omitted, which I am sure was owing to
misinformation; that is, that I had acknowledged McLeod 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 McLeod family consists
of two different branches; the M'Leods of Lewis, of which I am
descended, and the M'Leods of Harris. And though the former have lost a
very extensive estate by forfeiture in king James the Sixth's time,
there are still several respectable families of it existing, who would
justly blame me for such an unmeaning cession, when they all 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 favour of you to acquaint the Doctor with the difficulty he has
brought me to. In travelling among rival clans, such a silly tale as
this might easily be whispered into the ear of a passing stranger; but
as it has no foundation in fact, I hope the Doctor will be so good as to
take his own way in undeceiving the publick, I principally mean my
friends and connections, who will be first angry at me, and next sorry
to find such an instance of my littleness recorded in a book which has a
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 servant,
'JOHN M'LEOD.'
* * * * *
'TO THE LAIRD OF RASAY.
'London, May 8, 1775.
'DEAR SIR,
'The day before yesterday I had the honour to receive your letter, and I
immediately communicated it to Dr. Johnson. He said he loved your
spirit, and was exceedingly sorry that he had been the cause of the
smallest uneasiness to you. There is not a more candid man in the world
than he is, when properly addressed, as you will see from his letter to
you, which I now enclose. He has allowed me to take a copy of it, and he
says you may read it to your clan, or publish it if you please. Be
assured, Sir, that I shall take care of what he has entrusted to me,
which is to have an acknowledgement of his errour 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 acknowledgement 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 shew to your
daughter, Miss M'Leod, were due to her own merit, and were well repaid
by her agreeable company. But I am sure I should be a very unworthy man
if I did not wish to shew a grateful sense of the hospitable and genteel
manner in which you were pleased to treat me. Be assured, my dear Sir,
that I shall 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.
'I beg that you may present my best respects to Lady Rasay, my
compliments to your young family, and to Dr. M'Leod; and my hearty good
wishes to Malcolm, with whom I hope again to shake hands cordially. I
have the honour to be,
'Dear Sir,
'Your obliged and faithful humble servant,
'JAMES BOSWELL.' ADVERTISEMENT, written by Dr. Johnson, and inserted
by his desire in the Edinburgh newspapers:--Referred to in the foregoing
letter[1140].
_'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[1141], and wishes to
be told of more, if more have been discovered.'_
Dr. Johnson's letter was as follows:--
'To THE LAIRD OF RASAY.
'DEAR SIR,
'Mr. Boswell has this day shewn 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 acknowledgement of the superiority of M'Leod of
Dunvegan. I only designed to express what I thought generally
admitted,--that the house of Rasay allowed the superiority of the house
of Dunvegan. Even this I now find to be erroneous, and 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 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[1142].'
'London, May 6, 1775.'
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_[1143].
'To JAMES BOSWELL, ESQ.
'Edinburgh, March 7, 1777.
'My DEAR SIR,
'I ought to have thanked you sooner, for your very obliging letter, and
for the singular confidence you are pleased to place in me, when you
trust me with such a curious and valuable deposit as the papers you
have sent me[1144]. 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,
