ground, tumbled, and tore the grass with their teeth. This year there was not a tear shed. The people on the shore seemed to think that they would soon follow. This indifference is a mortal sign for the country. We danced to-night to the music of the into Col. 1 CHAPTER XLI. 1773. His Appearance on a Sheltie. Sea Survey of Col. - Rev. - Bayle, Leibnitz, and Clarke. Song, "Hatyin foam' eri.” Johnson's Power of Ridicule. Happiness in a Cottage. — Advice to Landlords. Pretended Brother of Johnson. Carte's Life of Ormond. - Family of Col. Letters by Montrose. bagpipe, which made us beat the ground with Johnson leaves the Isle of Sky. A Storm.- Driven prodigious force. I thought it better to endeavour to conciliate the kindness of the people of Sky, by joining heartily in their amusements, than to play the abstract scholar. I looked on this tour to the Hebrides as a copartnership between Dr. Johnson and me. Each was to do all he could to promote its success; and I have some reason to flatter myself, that my Dr. gayer exertions were of service to us. Johnson's immense fund of knowledge and wit was a wonderful source of admiration and delight to them; but they had it only at times; and they required to have the intervals agreeably filled up, and even little elucidations of his learned text. I was also fortunate enough frequently to draw him forth to talk, when he would otherwise have been silent. The fountain was at times locked up, till I opened the spring. It was curious to hear the Hebridians, when any dispute happened while he was out of the room, saying, Stay till Dr. Johnson comes; say that to him!" 66 Yesterday, Dr. Johnson said, "I cannot but laugh, to think of myself roving among the Hebrides at sixty. I wonder where I shall rove at fourscore!" This evening he disputed the truth of what is said as to the people of St. Kilda catching cold whenever strangers come. "How can there," said he, "be a physical effect without a physical cause?" He added, laughing, "the arrival of a ship full of strangers would kill them; for, if one stranger gives them one cold, two strangers must give them two colds; and so in proportion." I wondered to hear him ridicule this, as he had praised M'Aulay for putting it in his book; saying, that it was manly in him to tell a fact, however strange, if he himself believed it. He said, the evidence was not adequate to the improbability of the thing; that if a physician, rather disposed to be incredulous, should go to St. Kilda, and report the fact, then he would begin to look about him. They said, it was annually proved by Macleod's steward, on whose arrival all the inhabitants caught cold. He jocularly remarked, "The steward always comes to demand something from them; and so they fall a coughing. I suppose the people in Sky all take a cold when 2. (naming a certain person) comes." They said, he came only in summer. JOHNSON. "That is out of tenderness to you. Bad weather and he, at the same time, would be too much." Sunday, Oct. 3.-JOSEPH reported that the wind was still against us. Dr. Johnson said, "A wind, or not a wind? that is the question;" for he can amuse himself at times with a little play of words, or rather sentences. I remember when he turned his cup at Aberbrothick, where we drank tea, he muttered, Claudite jam rivos, pueri. I must again and again apologize to fastidious readers, for recording such minute particulars. They prove the scrupulous fidelity of my Journal. Dr. Johnson said it was a very exact picture of a portion of his life. While we were chatting in the indolent style of men who were to stay here all this day at least, we were suddenly roused at being told that the wind was fair, that a little fleet of herring-busses was passing by for Mull, and that Mr. Simpson's vessel was about to sail. Hugh M'Donald, the skipper, came to us, and was impatient that we should get ready, which we soon did. Dr. Johnson, with composure and solemnity, repeated the observation of Epictetus, that, "as man has the voyage of death before him, whatever may be his employment, he should be ready at the master's call; and an old man should never be far from the shore, lest he should not be able to get himself ready." He rode, and I and the other gentlemen walked, about an English mile to the shore, where the vessel lay. Dr. Johnson said he should never forget Sky, and returned thanks for all civilities. We were carried to the vessel in a small boat which she had, and we set sail very briskly about one o'clock. I was much pleased with the motion for many hours. Dr. Johnson grew sick, and retired under cover, as it rained a good deal. I kept above, that I might have fresh air, and finding myself not affected by the motion of the vessel, I exulted in being a stout seaman, while Dr. Johnson was quite in a state of annihilation. But I was soon humbled; for after imagining that I could go with ease to America or the 1 See antè, p. 191., an, at least, ingenious solution of this enigma.. -CROKER. 2 Sir A. Macdonald. - CROKER. East Indies, I became very sick, but kept above board though it rained hard. As we had been detained so long in Sky by bad weather, we gave up the scheme that Col had planned for us of visiting several islands, and contented ourselves with the prospect of seeing Mull, and Icolmkill and Inchkenneth, which lie near to it. the harbours in Col. "Then let us run for it in God's name," said the skipper; and instantly we turned towards it. The little wherry which had fallen behind us had hard work. The master begged that, if we made for Col, we should put out a light to him. Accordingly, one of the sailors waved a glowing peat for some time. The various difficulties that were Mr. Simpson was sanguine in his hopes for started gave me a good deal of apprehension, awhile, the wind being fair for us. He said he from which I was relieved, when I found we would land us at Icolmkill that night. But were to run for a harbour before the wind. when the wind failed, it was resolved we should But my relief was but of short duration; for I make for the Sound of Mull, and land in the soon heard that our sails were very bad, and harbour of Tobermorie. We kept near the were in danger of being torn in pieces, in which five herring vessels for some time; but after- case we should be driven upon the rocky shore wards four of them got before us, and one of Col. It was very dark, and there was a little wherry fell behind us. When we got in heavy and incessant rain. The sparks of the full view of the point of Ardnamurchan, the burning peat flew so much about, that I dreaded wind changed, and was directly against our the vessel might take fire. Then, as Col was a getting into the Sound. We were then sportsman, and had powder on board, I figured obliged to tack, and get forward in that tedious that we might be blown up. Simpson and he manner. As we advanced, the storm grew appeared a little frightened, which made me greater, and the sea very rough. Col then more so; and the perpetual talking, or rather began to talk of making for Egg, or Canna, or shouting, which was carried on in Erse, alarmed his own island. Our skipper said, he would me still more. A man is always suspicious of get us into the Sound. Having struggled for what is saying in an unknown tongue; and, if this a good while in vain, he said, he would fear be his passion at the time, he grows more push forward till we were near the land of afraid. Our vessel often lay so much on one Mull, where we might cast anchor, and lie till side, that I trembled lest she should be overset ; the morning; for although, before this, there and indeed they told me afterwards, that they had been a good moon, and I had pretty dis- had run her sometimes to within an inch of the tinctly seen not only the land of Mull, but up water, so anxious were they to make what haste the Sound, and the country of Morven as at they could before the night should be worse. I one end of it, the night was now grown very now saw what I never saw before, a prodigious dark. Our crew consisted of one M'Donald, sea, with immense billows coming upon a vessel, our skipper, and two sailors, one of whom had so as that it seemed hardly possible to escape. but one eye; Mr. Simpson, himself, Col, and There was something grandly horrible in the Hugh M'Donald his servant, all helped. Simp- sight. I am glad I have seen it once. Amidst son said, he would willingly go for Col, if all these terrifying circumstances, I endeavoured young Col or his servant would undertake to to compose my mind. It was not easy to do pilot us to a harbour; but, as the island is low it; for all the stories that I had heard of the land, it was dangerous to run upon it in the dangerous sailing among the Hebrides, which dark. Col and his servant appeared a little is proverbial, came full upon my recollection. dubious. The scheme of running for Canna When I thought of those who were dearest to seemed then to be embraced; but Canna was me, and would suffer severely, should I be lost, ten leagues off, all out of our way; and they I upbraided myself, as not having a sufficient were afraid to attempt the harbour of Egg. cause for putting myself in such danger. Piety All these different plans were successively in afforded me comfort; yet I was disturbed by agitation. The old skipper still tried to make the objections that have been made against a for the land of Mull; but then it was consi- particular providence, and by the arguments dered that there was no place there where we of those who maintain that it is in vain to hope could anchor in safety. Much time was lost in that the petitions of an individual, or even of striving against the storm. At last it became congregations, can have any influence with the so rough, and threatened to be so much worse, Deity; objections which have been often made, that Col and his servant took more courage, and which Dr. Hawkesworth has lately reand said they would undertake to hit one of vived, in his Preface to the Voyages to the "and 1 "The general disapprobation with which the doctrines unhappily advanced by Hawkesworth in this preface were received, deprived him," says the Biographical Dictionary," of peace of mind and of life itself;" and Mrs. Piozzi says, (Anec dotes, p. 143.) "Hawkesworth, the pious, the virtuous, and the wise, fell a lamented sacrifice to newspaper abuse; Mr. Malone, in a MS. note on that passage, in his copy of Piozzi's Anecdotes (which Mr. Markland has been so good as to communicate to me), states, that, “after Hawkesworth had published Cooke's first voyage, he was attacked severely in the newspapers, by a writer who signed himself A Chris tian, for some tenets in that work, which so preyed on his spirits that he put an end to his life by a large dose of opium." There is some reason, however, to believe that these accounts -both of the public indignation, and of Dr. Hawkesworth's consequent distress of mind-were exaggerated; for he was, between the publication of his preface in Spring, 1773, and his death in the November of the same year, elected a Director of the East India Company, a distinction which, if the accounts before-mentioned were true, it is not likely that he should have either solicited or obtained. In the periodicals of the day he is stated to have "died of a linger South Seas; but Dr. Ogden's excellent doctrine on the efficacy of intercession prevailed. It was half an hour after eleven before we set ourselves in the course for Col. As I saw them all busy doing something, I asked Col, with much earnestness, what I could do. He, with a happy readiness, put into my hand a rope, which was fixed to the top of one of the masts, and told me to hold it till he bade me pull. If I had considered the matter, I might have seen that this could not be of the least service; but his object was to keep me out of the way of those who were busy working the vessel, and at the same time to divert my fear, by employing me, and making me think that I was of use. Thus did I stand firm to my post, while the wind and rain beat upon me, always expecting a call to pull my rope. The man with one eye steered; old M'Donald, and Col and his servant, lay upon the forecastle, looking sharp out for the harbour. It was necessary to carry much cloth, as they termed it, that is to say, much sail, in order to keep the vessel off the shore of Col. This made violent plunging in a rough sea. At last they spied the harbour of Lochiern, and Col cried, "Thank God, we are safe!" We ran up till we were opposite to it, and soon afterwards we got into it, and cast anchor. Dr. Johnson had all this time been quiet and unconcerned. He had lain down on one of the beds, and having got free from sickness, was satisfied. The truth is, he knew nothing of the danger we were in'; but, fearless and unconcerned, might have said, in the words which he has chosen for the motto to his "Rambler," 66 Quo me cunque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes."* Once, during the doubtful consultations, he asked whither we were going; and upon being told that it was not certain whether to Mull or Col, he cried, "Col for my money!" I now went down, with Col and Mr. Simpson, to visit him. He was lying in philosophic tranquillity with a greyhound of Col's at his back, keeping him warm. Col is quite the Juvenis qui gaudet canibus. He had, when we left Talisker, two greyhounds, two terriers, a pointer, and a large ing fever." One is willing to hope that a life like Hawkesworth's, spent in advocating the interests of morality and religion, was not so miserably clouded at its very close. — CROKER. He at least made light of it, in his letters to Mrs Thrale. "After having been detained by storms many days at Skie, we left it, as we thought, with a fair wind; but a violent gust, which Boswell had a great mind to call a tempest, forced us into Col, an obscure island; on which-nulla campis arbor æstiva recreatur aura.'" Letters.- CROKER. Their risque, in a sea full of islands, was very considerable. Indeed, the whole expedition was highly perilous, considering the season of the year, the precarious chance of getting sea-worthy boats, and the ignorance of the Hebrideans, who, notwithstanding the opportunities, I may say the necessities, of their situation, are very careless and unskilful sailors. WALTER SCOTT. 2"For as the tempest drives, I shape my way."- Francis. Hor. 1. Ep. 1. 15. BOSWELL. 3 This was probably the same kind of unintentional fasting as that which suggested to him, at an earlier period, the affecting epithet impransus (antè, p. 39.)- WALTER SCOTT. Newfoundland water-dog. He lost one of his terriers by the road, but had still five dogs with him. I was very ill, and very desirous to get to shore. When I was told that we could not land that night, as the storm had now increased, I looked so miserably, as Col afterwards informed me, that what Shakspeare has made the Frenchman say of the English soldiers, when scantily dieted, "Piteous they will look, like drowned mice!" might, I believe, have been well applied to me. There was in the harbour, before us, a Campbell-town vessel, the Betty, Kenneth Morison master, taking in kelp, and bound for Ireland. We sent our boat to beg beds for two gentlemen, and that the master would send his boat, which was larger than ours. He accordingly did so, and Col and I were accommodated in his vessel till the morning. Monday, Oct. 4.-About eight o'clock we went in the boat to Mr. Simpson's vessel, and took in Dr. Johnson. He was quite well, though he had tasted nothing but a dish of tea since Saturday night. On our expressing some surprise at this, he said, that "when he lodged in the Temple, and had no regular system of life, he had fasted for two days at a time, during which he had gone about visiting, though not at the hours of dinner or supper; that he had drunk tea, but eaten no bread; that this was no intentional fasting, but happened just in the course of a literary life." There was a little miserable public-house close upon the shore, to which we should have gone, had we landed last night: but this morning Col resolved to take us directly to the house of Captain Lauchlan M'Lean, a descendant of his family, who had acquired a fortune in the East Indies, and taken a farm in Col. We had about an English mile to go to it. Col and Joseph, and some others, ran to some little horses, called here shelties, that were running wild on a heath, and catched one of them. We had a saddle with us, which was clapped upon it, and a straw halter was put on its head. Dr. Johnson was then mounted, and Joseph very slowly and gravely led the horse. I said to Dr. Johnson, "I wish, Sir, the club saw you in this attitude.”* It was a very heavy rain, and I was wet to the skin. Captain M'Lean had but a poor temporary house, or rather hut; however, it was a very good haven to us. There was a blazing peat fire, and Mrs. M'Lean, daughter of the minister of the parish, got us tea. I felt still the motion of the sea. Dr. Johnson said, it was not in the imagination, but a continuation of motion on the fluids, like that of the sea itself after the storm is over. There were some books on the board which served as a chimney-piece. Dr. Johnson took up "Burnet's History of his own Times." He said, "The first part of it is one of the most entertaining books in the English language; it is quite dramatic: while he went about every where, saw every where, and heard every where. By the first part, I mean so far as it appears that Burnet himself was actually engaged in what he has told; and this may be easily distinguished." Captain M'Lean censured Burnet, for his high praise of Lauderdale in a dedication, when he shows him in his history to have been so bad a man. JOHNSON. "I do not think, myself, that a man should say in a dedication what he could not say in a history. However, allowance should be made; for there is a great difference. The known style of a dedication is flattery: it professes to flatter. There is the same difference between what a man says in a dedication, and what he says in a history, as between a lawyer's pleading a cause, and reporting it." The day passed away pleasantly enough. The wind became fair for Mull in the evening, and Mr. Simpson resolved to sail next morning; but having been thrown into the island of Col, we were unwilling to leave it unexamined, especially as we considered that the Campbelltown vessel would sail for Mull in a day or two; and therefore we determined to stay. Tuesday, Oct. 5.-I rose, and wrote my Journal till about nine, and then went to Dr. Johnson, who sat up in bed and talked and laughed. I said, it was curious to look back ten years, to the time when we first thought of visiting the Hebrides. How distant and improbable the scheme then appeared! Yet here we were actually among them. "Sir," said he, "people may come to do any thing almost, by talking of it. I really believe I could talk myself into building a house upon Island Isa, though I should probably never come back again to see it. I could easily persuade Reynolds to do it; and there would be no great sin in persuading him to do it. Sir, he would reason thus: What will it cost me to be there once in two or three summers? Why, perhaps, five hundred pounds; and what is that, in comparison of having a fine retreat, to which a man can go, or to which he can send a friend?' He would never find out that he may have this that diverts me extremely,- The Motion. Tell me, dear, now who made the design, and who took the likenesses; they are admirable: the lines are as good as one sees on such within twenty miles of London. Then I would tell him, that he may marry one of the Miss Macleods, a lady of great family. Sir, it is surprising, how people will go to a distance, for what they may have at home. I knew a lady' who came up from Lincolnshire to Knightsbridge with one of her daughters, and gave five guineas a week for a lodging and a warm bath; that is, mere warm water. That, you know, could not be had in Lincolnshire! She said, it was made either too hot or too cold there." After breakfast, Dr. Johnson and I, and Joseph, mounted horses, and Col and the captain walked with us about a short mile across the island. We paid a visit to the Rev. Mr. Hector M'Lean. His parish consists of the islands of Col and Tyr-yi. He was about seventy-seven years of age, a decent ecclesiastic, dressed in a full suit of black clothes, and a black wig. He appeared like a Dutch pastor, or one of the "Assembly of Divines" at Westminster. Dr. Johnson observed to me afterwards, "that he was a fine old man, and was as well dressed, and had as much dignity in his appearance, as the dean of a cathedral.” We were told that he had a valuable library, though but poor accommodation for it, being obliged to keep his books in large chests. It was curious to see him and Dr. Johnson together. Neither of them heard very distinctly; so each of them talked in his own way, and at the same time. Mr. M'Lean said, he had a confutation of Bayle, by Leibnitz. JOHNSON. "A confutation of Bayle, Sir! What part of Bayle do you mean? The greatest part of his writings is not confutable: it is historical and critical." Mr. M'Lean said, “the irreligious part;" and proceeded to talk of Leibnitz's controversy with Clarke, calling Leibnitz a great man. JOHNSON. "Why, Sir, Leibnitz persisted in affirming that Newton called space sensorium numinis, notwithstanding he was corrected, and desired to observe that Newton's words were quasi sensorium numinis. No, Sir; Leibnitz was as paltry a fellow as I know. Out of respect to Queen Caroline, who patronised him, Clarke treated him too well." During the time that Dr. Johnson was thus going on, the old minister was standing with his back to the fire, cresting up erect, pulling down the front of his periwig, and talking what a great man Leibnitz was. To give an idea of the scene would require a page with two columns; but it ought rather to be represented by two good players. The old gentleman said, Clarke was very wicked, for going so much into the Arian system. "I will not say he was wicked," said Dr. Johnson; "he might be mistaken." M'LEAN. "He was wicked, to shut his eyes against the Scriptures; and worthy men in England have since confuted him to all intents and purposes." JOHNSON. "I know not who has confuted him to all intents and purposes." Here again there was a double talking, each continuing to maintain his own argument, without hearing exactly what the other said. I regretted that Dr. Johnson did not practise the art of accommodating himself to different sorts of people. Had he been softer with this venerable old man, we might have had more conversation; but his forcible spirit, and impetuosity of manner, may be said to spare neither sex nor age. I have seen even Mrs. Thrale stunned; but I have often maintained, that it is better he should retain his own manner. Pliability of address I conceive to be inconsistent with that majestic power of mind which he possesses, and which produces such noble effects. A lofty oak will not bend like a supple willow. He told me afterwards, he liked firmness in an old man, and was pleased to see Mr. M'Lean so orthodox. "At his age, it is too late for a man to be asking himself questions as to his belief." We rode to the northern part of the island, where we saw the ruins of a church or chapel. We then proceeded to a place called Grissipol, or the rough pool. 66 At Grissipol we found a good farm-house, belonging to the Laird of Col, and possessed by Mr. M'Sweyn. On the beach here there is a singular variety of curious stones. I picked up one very like a small cucumber. By the by, Dr. Johnson told me that Gay's line in the Beggar's Opera," "As men should serve a cucumber," &c.2, has no waggish meaning, with reference to men flinging away cucumbers as too cooling, which some have thought; for it has been a common saying of physicians in England, that a cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing. Mr. M'Sweyn's predecessors had been in Sky 1 If Dr. Johnson had not been in the habit of reading the Journal, we should, instead of this remonstrance, sweetened with so much extenuation and flattery, have here had the details of the harshness which Boswell regrets, and which must have been pretty severe to remind Boswell that his violence" spared neither age nor sex."- CROKER. "I wonder any man alive should ever rear a daughter; For when she's dress'd with care and cost, all tempting, fine, and gay, As men should serve a cucumber, she flings herself away."-WRIGHT. 3 M'Swyne has an awkward sound, but the name is held to be of high antiquity, both in the Hebrides and the north of Ireland. WALTER SCOTT. In the county of Donegal, in the North of Ireland, a singular hole in a cliff, communicating with a cave below, through which, in certain circumstances of the sea and wind, the spray is driven up with great force, is called M'Swine's (for M'Sweyn's) Gun. The name, no doubt, was originally Scandinavian, but seems to have been established in England before the Conquest. "In Ferleià (Fernely, Yorkshire) Goduin et Suen habuerunt, &c. ubi nunc habet Ilbertus de Lacy." Doomsday book. -CROKER. 4 Hatyin foam (see antè, p. 316.). A very popular air in the Hebrides, written to the praise and glory of Allan Muidartach, or Allan of Muidart, a chief of the Clanranald family. The following is a translation of it by a fair friend of mine [the late Margaret Maclean Clephane, Marchioness of Northampton]: from a very remote period, upon the estate belonging to Macleod; probably before Macleod had it. The name is certainly Norwegian, from Sueno, King of Norway. The present Mr. M'Sweyn left Sky upon the late Macleod's raising his rents. He then got this farm from Col. He appeared to be near fourscore; but looked as fresh, and was as strong, as a man of fifty. His son Hugh looked older; and, as Dr. Johnson observed, had more the manners of an old man than he. I had often heard of such instances, but never saw one before. Mrs. M'Sweyn was a decent old gentlewoman. She was dressed in tartan, and could speak nothing but Erse. She said, she taught Sir James M'Donald Erse, and would teach me soon. I could now sing a verse of the song Hatyin foam' erit, made in honour of Allan, the famous captain of Clanranald, who fell at Sherrif-muir: whose servant, who lay on the field watching his master's dead body, being asked next day who that was, answered, "He was a man yesterday." We were entertained here with a primitive heartiness. Whisky was served round in a shell, according to the ancient Highland custom. Dr. Johnson would not partake of it; but, being desirous to do honour to the modes "of other times," drank some water out of the shell. In the forenoon Dr. Johnson said, "It would require great resignation to live in one of these islands." BOSWELL. "I don't know, Sir; I have felt myself at times in a state of almost mere physical existence, satisfied to eat, drink, and sleep, and walk about, and enjoy my own thoughts: and I can figure a continuation of this.' JOHNSON. "Ay, Sir; but if you were shut up here, your own thoughts would torment you: you would think of Edinburgh, or of London, and that you could not be there." We set out after dinner for Breacacha, the "Come, here's a pledge to young and old, CHORUS. "Along, along, then haste along, "When waves blow gurly off the strand, "And when to old Kilphedar came Such troops of damsels gay; Say, came they there for Allan's fame, Ör came they there to pray? Along, along, &c. "And when these dames of beauty rare On some were gems and jewels rare, The song seems to break off imperfectly, but I copy Sir Walter's MS. CROKER. * St. Peter's Church in Sky.- CROKER. |