whatever may be their present state, were of "And aw the brave M'Craas are coming." "1 Dr. Johnson was much refreshed by this repast. He was pleased when I told him he would make a good chief. He said, "Were I a chief, I would dress my servants better than myself, and knock a fellow down if he looked saucy to a Macdonald in rags; but I would not treat men as brutes. I would let them know why all of my clan were to have attention paid to them. I would tell my upper servants why, and make them tell the others." We rode on well, till we came to the high mountain called the Rattakin, by which time both Dr. Johnson and the horses were a good deal fatigued. It is a terrible steep to climb, notwithstanding the road is formed slanting along it; however, we made it out. On the top of it we met Captain Macleod, of Balmenoch (a Dutch officer who had come from Sky), riding with his sword slung across him. He asked, "Is this Mr. Boswell?" which was a proof that we were expected. the hill on the other side was no easy task. Going down As Dr. Johnson was a great weight, the two guides agreed that he should ride the horses alternately. Hay's were the two best, and the Doctor would not ride but upon one or other of them, a black or a brown. But, as Hay complained much after ascending the Rattakin, 1 The M'Craas, or Macraes, were, since that time, brought into the king's army, by the late Lord Seaforth. When they lay in Edinburgh Castle, in 1778, and were ordered to embark for Jersey, they, with a number of other men in the regiment, for different reasons, but especially an apprehension that they were to be sold to the East India Company, though inlisted not to be sent out of Great Britain without their own consent, made a determined mutiny, and encamped upon the lofty mountain, Arthur's Seat, where they remained three days and three nights, bidding defiance to all the force in Scotland. At last they came down, and embarked peaceably, having obtained formal articles of capitulation, signed by Sir Adolphus Oughton, commander-in-chief, General Skene, deputy commander, the Duke of Buccleugh, and the Earl of 1773. the Doctor was prevailed with to mount one of Vass's grays. As he rode upon it down hill, it did not go well, and he grumbled. I walked on a little before, but was excessively entergood humour. Hay led the horse's head, tained with the method taken to keep him in talking to Dr. Johnson as much as he could; and (having heard him, in the forenoon, express a pastoral pleasure on seeing the goats browsing) just when the Doctor was uttering his displeasure, the fellow cried, with a very Highland accent, "See, such pretty goats!" Then he whistled whu! and made them jump. Little did he conceive what Dr. Johnson was. Here now was a common ignorant Highland clown imagining that he could divert, as one does a child, Dr. Samuel Johnnson! The luditrast between what the fellow fancied, and the crousness, absurdity, and extraordinary conreality, was truly comic. ride for what was called five miles, but I am It grew dusky; and we had a very tedious sure would measure ten. Glenelg, on the shore opposite to Sky, that I sation. I was riding forward to the inn at We had no convermight take proper measures, before Dr. JohnHay leading his horse, should arrive. Vass son, who was now advancing in dreary silence, also walked by the side of his horse, and Joseph followed behind. As, therefore, he was thus attended, and seemed to be in deep meditation, I thought there could be no harm in leaving him for a little while. He called me back with sion with me for leaving him. I told him my a tremendous shout, and was really in a pasintentions, but he was not satisfied, and said, of picking a pocket, as doing so.' "Do you know, I should as soon have thought "I am diverted with you, Sir." JOHNSON. BOSWELL Doing such a thing makes one lose confidence Sir, I could never be diverted with incivility. in him who has done it, as one cannot tell what he may do next." warmth confounded me so much, that I justiHis extraordinary fied myself but lamely to him; yet my intentions were not improper. I wished to get on, to see how we were to be lodged, and how we could best settle myself, without his having were to get a boat; all which I thought I any trouble. To apply his great mind to minute particulars is wrong: it is like taking for weighing cargoes of ships) to weigh a an immense balance (such as is kept on quays guinea. I knew I had neat little scales, which would do better; and that his attention to 66 every thing which falls in his way, and his uncommon desire to be always in the right, would make him weigh, if he knew of the particulars: 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. As we passed the barracks at Bernéra, I looked at them wishfully, as soldiers have always every thing in the best order; but there was only a sergeant and a few men there. We came on to the inn at Glenelg. There was no provender for our horses; so they were sent to grass, with a man to watch them. A maid showed us up stairs into a room damp and dirty, with bare walls, a variety of bad smells, a coarse black greasy fir table, and forms [benches] of the same kind; and out of a wretched bed started a fellow from his sleep, like Edgar in King Lear, "Poor Tom's a cold." i This inn was furnished with not a single article that we could either eat or drink; but Mr. Murchison, factor to the Laird of Macleod, in Glenelg, sent us a bottle of rum and some sugar, with a polite message, to acquaint us, that he was very sorry that he did not hear of us till we had passed his house, otherwise he should have insisted on our sleeping there that night; and that, if he were not obliged to set out for Inverness early next morning, he would have waited upon us. Such extraordinary attention from this gentleman, to entire strangers, deserves the most honourable commemoration. Our bad accommodation here made me uneasy, and almost fretful. Dr. Johnson was calm. I said he was so from vanity. JOHNSON. "No, Sir; it is from philosophy." It pleased me to see that the Rambler could practise so well his own lessons. I resumed the subject of my leaving him on the road, and endeavoured to defend it better. He was still violent upon that head, and said, "Sir, had you gone on, I was thinking that I should have returned with you to Edinburgh, and then have parted from you, and never spoken to you more." I sent for fresh hay, with which we made beds for ourselves, each in a room equally miserable. Like Wolfe, we had a "a choice of difficulties." Dr. Johnson made things easier by comparison. At M'Queen's, last night, he observed, that few were so well lodged in a ship. To-night, he said, we were better than if we had been upon the hill. He lay down buttoned up in his great coat. I had my sheets spread on the hay, and my clothes and great coat laid over me, by way of blankets.3 It is amusing to observe the different images which this being presented to Dr. Johnson and me. The Doctor, in his "Journey," compares him to a Cyclops. — Boswell. 2 This phrase, now so common, excited some surprise and criticism when used by General Wolfe, in his despatch from before Quebec. See London Gazette Extraordinary, 16th October, 1759. — CROKER. Dr. I Thursday, Sept. 2.. I HAD slept ill. Johnson's anger had affected me much. considered that, without any bad intention, I might suddenly forfeit his friendship; and was impatient to see him this morning. I told him how uneasy he had made me by what he had said, and reminded him of his own remark at Aberdeen, upon old friendships being hastily broken off. He owned, he had spoken to me in passion; that he would not have done what he threatened; and that, if he had, he should have been ten times worse than I; that forming intimacies would indeed be "limning the water," were they liable to such sudden dissolution; and he added, "Let's think no more on't.' BOSWELL. "Well then, Sir, I shall be easy. Remember, I am to have fair warning in case of any quarrel. You are never to spring a mine upon me. It was absurd in me to believe you." JOHNSON. "You deserved about as much, as to believe me from night to morning." After breakfast, we got into a boat for Sky. It rained much when we set off, but cleared up as we advanced. One of the boatmen, who spoke English, said that a mile at land was two miles at sea. I then observed, that from Glenelg to Armidale in Sky, which was our present course, and is called twelve, was only six miles; but this he could not understand. Well," said Dr. Johnson, 66 never talk to me of the native good sense of the Highlanders. Here is a fellow who calls one mile two, and yet cannot comprehend that twelve such imaginary miles make in truth but six." We reached the shore of Armidale before one o'clock. Sir Alexander Macdonald came down to receive us. He and his lady (formerly Miss Boswell, of Yorkshire), were then in a house built by a tenant at this place, which is in the district of Slate, the family 3 Johnson thus describes this scene to Mrs. Thrale: “I ordered hay to be laid thick upon the bed, and slept upon it in my great coat. Boswell laid sheets upon his bed, and reposed in linen, like a gentleman."- Letters.- CROKER. 4 The Yorkshire branch of the family have generally spelt the name Bosville. Their estates are now possessed by Lord Macdonald. BOSWELL. mansion here having been burned in Sir Donald Macdonald's time.' (The most ancient seat of the chief of the Macdonalds in the Isle of Sky was at Duntulm, where there are the remains of a stately castle. The principal residence of the family is now at Mugstot, at which there is a considerable building. Sir Alexander and Lady Macdonald had come to Armidale in their way to Edinburgh, where it was necessary for them to be soon after this time. Armidale is situated on pretty bay of the narrow sea, which flows between the main land of Scotland and the Isle of Sky. In front there is a grand prospect of the rude mountains of Moidart and Knoidart. Behind are hills gently rising and covered with a finer verdure than I expected to see in this climate, and the scene is enlivened by a number of little clear brooks.) [Instead of finding the head of the Macdonalds surrounded with his clan, and a festive entertainment, we had a small company, and cannot boast of our cheer. The particulars are minuted in my "Journal," but I shall not trouble the public with them. I shall mention but one characteristic circumstance. My shrewd and hearty friend, Sir Thomas (Wentworth) Blacket, Lady Macdonald's uncle, who had preceded us in 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, and being a gentleman of talents, Dr. Johnson had been very well pleased with him in London. But my fellowtraveller and I were now full of the old Highland spirit, and were dissatisfied at hearing [heavy complaints] of rents racked, and [the people driven to] emigration; and finding a chief not surrounded by his clan, Dr. Johnson said, ["It grieves me to see the chief of a great clan appear to such disadvantage. This gentleman has talents, nay, some learning; but he is totally unfit for his situation." I meditated an escape from this house the very next day; but 1 Here commence the variances between the first and second editions of Boswell's Tour which deserve to be particularly noted. The paragraphs between () were inserted by Mr. Boswell in the second edition to fill the space of those between [], which were in the first edition, and omitted in the second. In the first of these substituted paragraphs, Boswell says. that Sir Alexander and his lady "came to Armidale on their way to Edinburgh, where it was necessary they should be;" but both Boswell and Dr. Johnson really believed that they had come to this hovel, to escape the necessity of entertaining the visitors at their usual residence. Johnson, in a letter to Mrs. Thrale, says, "We had a passage of about twelve miles to the point where [Sir A. Macdonald] resided, having come from his seat, in 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 her tea-table: we picked our sugar with our fingers. Boswell was very angry, and reproached him with his improper parsimony."- And again: I have done thinking of [Sir Alexander], whom we now call Sir Sawney; he has disgusted all mankind by inju Dr. Johnson resolved that we should weather it out till Monday. He said,] "Sir, the Highland chiefs should not be allowed to go farther south than Aberdeen. A strong-minded man, like [his brother] Sir James Macdonald, may be improved by an English education; but in general they will be tamed into insignificance." We found here Mr. Janes of Aberdeenshire, a naturalist. Janes said he had been at Dr. Johnson's in London, with Ferguson the astronomer. JOHNSON. "It is strange that, in such distant places, I should meet with any one who knows me. Í should have thought I might hide myself in Sky." Friday, Sept. 3. - This day proving wet, we should have passed our time very uncomfortably, had we not found in the house two chests of books, which we eagerly ransacked. After dinner, when I alone was left at table with the few Highland gentlemen who were of the company, having talked with very high respect of Sir James Macdonald, they were all so much affected as to shed tears. One of them was Mr. Donald Macdonald, who had been lieutenant of grenadiers in the Highland regiment, raised by Colonel Montgomery, now Earl of Eglintoune, in the war before last; one of those regiments which the late Lord Chatham prided himself in having brought from "the mountains of the north;" by doing which he contributed to extinguish in the Highlands the remains of disaffection to the present royal family. From this gentleman's conversation, I first learnt how very popular his colonel was among the Highlanders; of which I had such continued proofs, during the whole course of my Tour, that on my return I could not help telling the noble Earl himself, that I did not before know how great a man he was. We were advised by some persons here to visit Rasay, in our way to Dunvegan, the seat of the Laird of Macleod. Being informed that the Rev. Mr. Donald M'Queen was the most intelligent man in Sky, and having been favoured with a letter of introduction to him, by the learned Sir James Foulis', I sent it to dicious parsimony, and given occasion to so many stories, that Boswell has some thoughts of collecting them, and making a novel of his life." - Letters. These passages, and the extracts from the first edition, leave no doubt as to the person meant in the various allusions to the mean and parsimonious landlord and chieftain, which the reader will find in the subsequent parts of the Tour. It was said at the time that Boswell was induced to make these alterations and suppressions by a hostile remonstrance from Sir A. Macdonald. See post, p. 408. n. 3. CROKER. 2 See his Latin verses addressed to Dr. Johnson, in the Appendix,; - BOSWELL. Indifferent, and, indeed, unintelligible, as these verses are, they probably suggested to Dr. Johnson's mind the writing those Latin verses in Skye and Inch-Kenneth, which we shall see presently.-CROKER. 3 Here, in the first edition, was a leaf cancelled, which, no doubt, contained some strictures on Sir Alexander Macdonald's want of hospitality and spirit, still stronger than those which were permitted to appear. - CROKER. 4 Sir James Foulis, of Collinton, Bart., was a man of an ancient family, a good scholar, and a hard student; duly im bued with a large share both of Scottish shrewdness and Scottish prejudice. His property, his income at least, was very moderate. Others might have increased it in a voyage him by an express, and requested he would meet us at Rasay; and at the same time enclosed a letter to the Laird of Macleod, informing him that we intended in a few days to have the honour of waiting on him at Dun vegan. Dr. Johnson this day endeavoured to obtain some knowledge of the state of the country; but complained that he could get no distinct information about any thing, from those with whom he conversed. cheered by the mere effect of climate. I had felt a return of spleen during my_stay_at Armidale, and had it not been that I had Dr. Johnson to contemplate, I should have sunk into dejection; but his firmness supported me. I looked at him, as a man whose head is turning giddy at sea looks at a rock, or any fixed object. I wondered at his tranquillity. He said, "Sir, when a man retires into an island, he is to turn his thoughts entirely to another world. He has done with this. " Saturday, Sept. 4.-My endeavours to rouse BOSWELL. "It appears to me, Sir, to be very the English-bred chieftain, in whose house we difficult to unite a due attention to this world, were, to the feudal and patriarchal feelings, and that which is to come; for, if we engage proving ineffectual, Dr. Johnson this morning eagerly in the affairs of life, we are apt to be tried to bring him to our way of thinking. totally forgetful of a future state; and, on the JOHNSON. Were I in your place, Sir, in seven other hand, a steady contemplation of the years I would make this an independent island. awful concerns of eternity renders all objects I would roast oxen whole, and hang out a flag here so insignificant, as to make us indifferent as a signal to the Macdonalds, to come and get and negligent about them. JOHNSON. "Sir, beef and whisky." Sir Alexander was still Dr. Cheyne has laid down a rule to himself on starting difficulties. JOHNSON. Nay, Sir; this subject, which should be imprinted on if you are born to object, I have done with every mind: To neglect nothing to secure you. Sir, I would have a magazine of arms.' my eternal peace, more than if I had been cerSIR ALEXANDER. "They would rust." JOHN-tified I should die within the day: nor to mind SON. "Let there be men to keep them clean. any thing that my secular obligations and duties Your ancestors did not use to let their arms demanded of me, less than if I had been insured to live fifty years more.' rust." 66 We attempted in vain to communicate to him a portion of our enthusiasm. He bore with so polite a good-nature our warm, and what some might call Gothic, expostulations on this subject, that I should not forgive myself were I to record all that Dr. Johnson's ardour led him to say. This day was little better than a blank. Sunday, Sept. 5.-I walked to the parish church of Slate, which is a very poor one. There are no church bells in the island. I was told there were once some; what was become of them, I could not learn. The minister not being at home, there was no service. I went into the church, and saw the monument of Sir James Macdonald, which was elegantly executed at Rome, and has an inscription, written by his friend, George Lord Lyttleton.2 Dr. Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent should be.3 This being a beautiful day, my spirits were I must here observe, that though Dr. Johnson appeared now to be philosophically calm, yet his genius did not shine forth as in companies, where I have listened to him with admiration. The vigour of his mind was, however, sufficiently manifested, by his discovering no symptoms of feeble relaxation in the dull, "weary, flat, and unprofitable" state in which we now were placed. I am inclined to think that it was on this day he composed the following Ode upon the Isle of Sky, which a few days afterwards he showed me at Rasay : "ODA. "Ponti profundis clausa recessibus, "His cura, credo, sedibus exulat; to India, which he made in the character of a commissioner ; but Sir James returned as poor as he went there. Sir James Foulis was one of the few Lowlanders whom Highlanders allowed to be well skilled in the Gaelic, an acquaintance which he made late in life. - WALTER SCOTT. 1 Dr. Johnson seems to have forgotten that a Highlander | going armed at this period incurred the penalty of serving as a common soldier for the first, and of transportation beyond sea for a second offence. And as for "calling out his clan," twelve Highlanders and a bagpipe made a rebellion. WALTER SCOTT. I think Sir Walter took Johnson's expostulation too literally. He meant by those appeals" to arms and ancestors" no more than a general exhortation to the sluggish chief as we remind the House of Lords every day of the Barons at Runnimede, without meaning to recommend an actual rebellion. See póst, sub 25th Oct., Johnson's observation to the Duke of Argyle. — CROKER, 1846. 2 For which, as well as two letters, written by Sir James, in his last illness, to his mother, see Appendix.- BosWELL. 3 What a strange perversion of language! — universal! Why, if it had been in Latin, so far from being universally understood, it would have been an utter blank to one (the better) half of the creation, and, even of the men who might visit it, ninety-nine will understand it in English for one who could in Latin. Something may be said for epitaphs and inscriptions addressed, as it were, to the world at large-a triumphal arch - the pillar at Blenheim-a monument at Waterloo; but a Latin epitaph, in an English church, appears, in principle, as absurd as the dinner, which the doctor gives in Peregrine Pickle, after the manner of the ancients. A mortal may surely be well satisfied if his fame lasts as long as the language in which he spoke or wrote.— CROKER. "At non cavata rupe latescere, After supper, Dr. Johnson told us, that Isaac Hawkins Browne drank freely for thirty years, and that he wrote his poem, "De Animi Immortalitate," in some of the last of these years. I listened to this with the eagerness of one, who, conscious of being himself fond of wine, is glad to hear that a man of so much genius and good thinking as Browne had the same propensity. Monday, Sept. 6.-We set out, accompanied by Mr. Donald M'Leod, late of Canna, as our guide. We rode for some time along the district of Slate, near the shore. The houses in general are made of turf, covered with grass. The country seemed well peopled. We came into the district of Strath, and passed along a wild moorish tract of land till we arrived at the shore. There we found good verdure, and some curious whin-rocks, or collections of stones, like the ruins of the foundations of old buildings. We saw also three cairns of considerable size. About a mile beyond Broadfoot is Corri 1 Various readings. -Line 2. In the manuscript, Dr. Johnson, instead of rupibus obsita, had written imbribus uvida, and uvida nubibus, but struck them both out. Instead of lines 15 and 16, he had written, but afterwards struck out, the following: : Parare posse, utcunque jactet Grandiloquus nimis alta Zeno. - BOSWELL. It is very curious that in all the editions of JOHNSON'S WORKS, which I have seen, even down to the Oxford edition of 1825, this poem is given with certain variations, which seem unintelligible. The first amendment, noted by Mr. Boswell, "obsita rupibus" is adopted, but the second is not, and the two lines rejected by Dr. Johnson are replaced the words "è scopulo," in the 12th line, are changed into "In specula," and in the penultimate line, "surgunt," is altered to "fluctus." In the last line too, "resident" is printed for "recidunt." These last variations look like mere errors of the press; but is it possible that Johnson's Latin poetry has been so little attended to, that the public has been, for forty years past, acquiescing in what appears to be stark nonsense? It seems wonderful that Mr. Murphy (who was himself a Latin poet) and the late Oxford editor should have overlooked these errors.CROKER. 2 Browne died in 1760, aged fifty-four. - BoswELL. 3 Broadford, says Mr. Macpherson. CROKER. 4 That my readers may have my narrative in the style of the country through which I am travelling, it is proper to inform them, that the chief of a clan is denominated by his surname alone, as M'Leod, M'Kinnon, M'Intosh. To prefix Mr. to it would be a degradation from the M'Leod, &c. My old friend the Laird of M Farlane, the great antiquary, took it highly amiss, when General Wade called him Mr. M'Farlane. Dr. Johnson said he could not bring himself to use this mode of address; it seemed to him to be too familiar, as it is the way in which, in all other places, intimates or inferiors are addressed. When the chiefs have titles, they chatachin, a farm of Sir Alexander Macdonald's, possessed by Mr. M'Kinnon, who received us with a hearty welcome, as did his wife, who was what we call in Scotland a ladylike woman.5 Mr. Pennant, in the course of his tour to the Hebrides, passed two nights at this gentleman's house. On its being mentioned, that a present had here been made to him of a curious specimen of Highland antiquity, Dr. Johnson said, "Sir, it was more than he deserved; the dog is a Whig." We here enjoyed the comfort of a table plentifully furnished, the satisfaction of which was heightened by a numerous and cheerful company; and we, for the first time, had a specimen of the joyous social manners of the inhabitants of the Highlands. They talked in their own ancient language, with fluent vivacity, and sung many Erse songs with such spirit, that, though Dr. Johnson was treated with the greatest respect and attention, there were moments in which he seemed to be forgotten. For myself, though but a Lowlander, having picked up a few words of the language, I presumed to mingle in their mirth, and joined in the choruses with as much glee as any of the company. Dr. Johnson, being fatigued with his journey, retired early to his chamber, where he composed the following Ode, addressed to Mrs. Thrale 7: "ODA. "Permeo terras, ubi nuda rupes are denominated by them, as Sir James Grant, Sir Allan M'Lean. The other Highland gentlemen, of landed property, are denominated by their estates, as Rasay, Boisdale ; and the wives of all of them have the title of Ladies. The tacksmen, or principal tenants, are named by their farms, as Kingsburgh, Corrichatachin; and their wives are called the mistress of Kingsburgh, the mistress of Corrichatachin. Having given this explanation, I am at liberty to use that mode of speech which generally prevails in the Highlands and the Hebrides. BOSWELL. 5 I am not aware that this epithet had any different meaning in Scotland from that attached to it in England. It is in Johnson's Dictionary, and he himself applied it to one of the Scottish ladies. CROKER. 6 Mr. Boswell does not do full justice to Dr. Johnson, when he leaves it in doubt, whether this was not said (as surely it was) in a spirit of jocularity. Johnson seems to have had a regard for Pennant. See p. 339. CROKER. 7 About fourteen years since, I landed in Sky, with a party of friends, and had the curiosity to ask what was the first idea on every one's mind at landing. All answered separately that it was this Ode. - WALTER SCOTT, 1829. Sir Walter appended this note to the Ode to Mrs. Thrale, but I should rather suppose that it was the preceding Ode in Skye which he and his Scotch friends recollected with pleasure. Surely, after the jocund and hospitable scene just described, the torva rura," the " hominum ferorum," the "vita nullo decorata cultu," and the "squallet informis," were not grateful. The "ignota strepitus loquela" is amusing and not offensive; but whatever may be said of the Doctor's gratitude to his friends in Sky, the classical reader will not have failed to observe how much his taste, and perhaps his Latinity, had improved since the days of the ode "Ad Urbanum, "and the epigrams to Savage and Eliza. His verses "In Theatro," and those in Sky and in Inch Kenneth, and this ode to Mrs. Thrale, are, though still liable to many criticisms, more natural in their thoughts, and more easy in their expressions, than his earlier attempts in this line. - CROKER. |