1

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one day in London, when Dr. Adam Smith was Tour to boasting of it, he turned to him and said, "Pray, sir, have you ever seen Brentford ?" This was surely a strong instance of his impatience, and spirit of contradiction. I put him in mind of it to-day, while he expressed his admiration of the elegant buildings, and whispered him, "Don't you feel some remorse?"

We were received in the college by a number of the professors, who showed all due respect to Dr. Johnson; and then we paid a visit to the principal, Dr. Leechman', at his own house, where Dr. Johnson had the satisfaction of being told that his name had been gratefully celebrated in one of the parochial congregations in the Highlands, as the person to whose influence it was chiefly owing, that the New Testament was allowed to be translated into the Erse language. It seems some political members of the Society in Scotland for propagating Christian Knowledge had opposed this pious undertaking, as tending to preserve the distinction between the Highlanders and Lowlanders. Dr. Johnson wrote a long letter upon the subject to a friend [Mr. Drummond], which being shown to them, made them ashamed, and afraid of being publicly exposed; so they were forced to a

was.

1 [Mr. Boswell has chosen to omit, for reasons which will be presently obvious, that Johnson and Adam Smith met at Glasgow; but I have been assured by Professor John Miller that they did so, and that Smith, leaving the party in which he had met Johnson, happened to come to another company where Miller Knowing that Smith had been in Johnson's society, they were anxious to know what had passed, and the more so as Dr. Smith's temper seemed much ruffled. At first Smith would only answer, "He's a brute-he's a brute;" but on closer examination, it appeared that Johnson no sooner saw Smith than he attacked him for some point of his famous letter on the death of Hume (ante, v. ii. p. 267, n.) Smith vindicated the truth of his statement. "What

did Johnson say?" was the universal inquiry. "Why, he said," replied Smith, with the deepest impression of resentment, "he said, you lie!" "And what did you reply ?" "I said, you are a son of a -!" On such terms did these two great moralists meet and part, and such was the classical dialogue between two great teachers of philosophy.-WALTER SCOTT.]

2

[See ante, v. ii. p. 303.-ED.]

VOL. III.

F

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Tour to compliance. It is now in my possession, and is, perhaps, one of the best productions of his masterly pen 1.

Professors Reid and Anderson, and the two Messieurs Foulis, the Elzevirs of Glasgow, dined and drank tea with us at our inn, after which the professors went away; and I, having a letter to write, left my fellow-traveller with Messieurs Foulis. Though good and ingenious men, they had that unsettled speculative mode of conversation which is offensive to a man regularly taught at an English school and university. I found that, instead of listening to the dictates of the sage, they had teased him with questions and doubtful disputations. He came in a flutter to me, and desired I might come back again, for he could not bear these men. "O ho! sir," said I, "you are flying to me for refuge!" He never, in any situation, was at a loss for a ready repartee. He answered, with quick vivacity, "It is of two evils choosing the least." I was delighted with this flash bursting from the cloud which hung upon his mind, closed my letter directly, and joined the company.

We supped at professor Anderson's. The general impression upon my memory is, that we had not much conversation at Glasgow, where the professors, like their brethren at Aberdeen, did not venture to expose themselves much to the battery of cannon which they knew might play upon them. Dr. Johnson, who was fully conscious of his own superior powers, afterwards praised principal Robertson for his caution in this respect. He said to me, "Robertson, sir, was in

[Printed ante, v. ii. p. 27.-ED.]

2 [Boswell himself was callous to the contacts of Dr. Johnson; and when telling them, always reminds one of a jockey receiving a kick from the horse which he is showing off to a customer, and is grinning with pain while he is trying to cry out, "pretty rogue-no vice-all fun." To him Johnson's rudeness was only "pretty Fanny's way." Dr. Robertson had a sense of goodbreeding which inclined him rather to forego the benefit of Johnson's conversation than awaken his rudeness.-WALTER SCOTT.]

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the right. Robertson is a man of eminence, and the Tour to head of a college at Edinburgh. He had a character to maintain, and did well not to risk its being lessened."

Saturday, 30th October.-We set out towards Ayrshire. I sent Joseph on to Loudoun, with a message, that, if the earl was at home, Dr. Johnson and I would have the honour to dine with him. Joseph met us on the road, and reported that the earl "jumped for joy," and said, "I shall be very happy to see them." We were received with a most pleasing courtesy by his lordship, and by the countess his mother', who, in her ninety-fifth year, had all her faculties quite unimpaired. This was a very cheering sight to Dr. Johnson, who had an extraordinary desire for long life. Her ladyship was sensible and well informed, and had seen a great deal of the world. Her lord had held several high offices, and she was sister to the great Earl of Stair.

I cannot here refrain from paying a just tribute to the character of John Earl of Loudoun, who did more service to the county of Ayr in general, as well as to individuals in it, than any man we have ever had. It is painful to think that he met with much ingratitude from persons both in high and low rank: but such was his temper, such his knowledge of "base mankind "," that, as if he had expected no other re

Lady Margaret Dalrymple, only daughter of John Earl of Stair, married, in 1700, to Hugh, third Earl of Loudoun. She died in 1777, aged one hundred. Of this venerable lady, and of the Countess of Eglintoune, whom Johnson visited next day, he thus speaks in his Journey: "Length of life is distributed impartially to very different modes of life in very different climates; and the mountains have no greater examples of age and health than the Lowlands, where I was introduced to two ladies of high quality, one of whom (Lady Loudoun), in her ninety-fourth year, presided at her table with the full exercise of all her powers; and the other (Lady Eglintoune) had attained her eightyfourth year, without any diminution of her vivacity, and little reason to accuse time of depredations on her beauty."-Works, v. viii. p. 313.—ED.]

2 [Fourth Earl, born in 1705, died in 1782. He had considerable military commands, and was the person who brought Johnson's friend, Lord Charles Hay, to a court martial, as we shall see hereafter.-ED.]

3 The unwilling gratitude of base mankind.-Pope.-BOSWELL.

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Tour to turn, his mind was never soured, and he retained his good humour and benevolence to the last. The tenderness of his heart was proved in 1745-6, when he had an important command in the Highlands, and behaved with a generous humanity to the unfortunate. I cannot figure a more honest politician; for though his interest in our county was great, and generally successful, he not only did not deceive by fallacious promises, but was anxious that people should not deceive themselves by too sanguine expectations. His kind and dutiful attention to his mother was unremitted. At his house was true hospitality; a plain but a plentiful table; and every guest being left at perfect freedom, felt himself quite easy and happy. While I live, I shall honour the memory of this amiable man.

At night, we advanced a few miles farther, to the house of Mr. Campbell, of Treesbank, who was married to one of my wife's sisters, and were entertained very agreeably by a worthy couple.

Sunday, 31st October. We reposed here in tranquillity. Dr. Johnson was pleased to find a numerous and excellent collection of books, which had mostly belonged to the Rev. Mr. John Campbell, brother of our host. I was desirous to have procured for my fellow-traveller, to-day, the company of Sir John Cuninghame, of Caprington, whose castle was but two miles from us. He was a very distinguished scholar, was long abroad, and during part of the time lived much with the learned Cuninghame, the opponent of Bentley as a critic upon Horace. He wrote Latin with great elegance, and, what is very remarkable, read Homer and Ariosto through every year. I wrote to him to request he would come to us; but unfortunately he was prevented by indisposition.

Monday, 1st November.-Though Dr. Johnson

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was lazy, and averse to move, I insisted that he should Tour to go with me, and pay a visit to the Countess of Eglintoune1, mother of the late and present earl. I assured him he would find himself amply recompensed for the trouble; and he yielded to my solicitations, though with some unwillingness. We were well mounted, and had not many miles to ride. He talked of the attention that is necessary in order to distribute our charity judiciously. "If thoughtlessly done, we may neglect the most deserving objects; and, as every man has but a certain proportion to give, if it is lavished upon those who first present themselves, there may be nothing left for such as have a better claim. A man should first relieve those who are nearly connected with him, by whatever tie; and then, if he has any thing to spare, may extend his bounty to a wider circle."

As we passed very near the castle of Dundonald, which was one of the many residencies of the kings of Scotland, and in which Robert the Second lived and died, Dr. Johnson wished to survey it particularly. It stands on a beautiful rising ground, which is seen at a great distance on several quarters, and from whence there is an extensive prospect of the rich district of Cuninghame, the western sea, the isle of Arran, and a part of the northern coast of Ireland. It has long been unroofed; and, though of considerable size, we could not, by any power of imagination, figure it as having been a suitable habitation for majesty. Dr. Johnson, to irritate my old Scottish en

[Susanna, daughter of Sir Alexander Kennedy, of Culzeen, third wife of the ninth Earl of Eglintoune. She was a clever woman, and a patroness of the Belles Lettres. Allan Ramsay's Gentle Shepherd was dedicated to her in a very fulsome style of panegyric. She died in Ayrshire, in 1780, aged ninety

one.

(See ante, 30th Oct. n.) The eighth Earl of Eglintoune, the father of her lord, had married, as his second wife, Catherine St. Quentin, the widow of three husbands, and aged above ninety at the time of her last marriage; being, it is presumed, the oldest bride on record.-ED.]