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Tour to donalds in the Isle of Sky was at Duntulm, where there are the remains of a stately castle.

The prin2d Ed. cipal 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.

1st Ed.

Armidale is situated on a 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 publick with them. I shall mention but one characteristick circumstance. My shrewd and hearty friend, Sir Thomas (Wentworth) Blacket, Lady Macdonald's uncle, who had preceded us in a visit to this chief,

burgh, 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 them 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 Alexander 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 up our sugar with our fingers. Boswell was very angry, and reproached him with his improper parsimony." Letters, vol. i. p. 137. And again: "I have done thinking of [Sir Alexander Macdonald], whom we now call Sir Sawney; he has disgusted all mankind by injudicious parsimony, and given occasion to so many stories, that [Boswell] has some thoughts of collecting them, and making a novel of his life.” 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.ED.]

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upon being asked by him, if the punch-bowl, then Tour to 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 fellow-traveller and I were now full of the old Highland spirit, and were dissatisfied at hearing [heavy complaints] of rents racked and 1st Ed. [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 1st Ed. appear to such disadvantage. This gentleman has talents, nay, some learning; but he is totally unfit. for his situation."] Sir, the Highland chiefs should not be allowed to go farther south than Aberdeen. A strong-minded man, like Sir James Macdonald, may be improved by an English education; but in general, they will be tamed into insignificance."

[I meditated an escape from this house the very 1st Ed. next day; but Dr. Johnson resolved that we should weather it out till Monday.]

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. I should have thought I might hide myself in Sky."

Friday, 3d September.-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

WELL.

See his Latin verses addressed to Dr. Johnson, in the Appendix.-Bos[Indifferent as these verses are, they probably suggested to Dr. Johnson's mind the writing those Latin verses in Skie and Inch-Kenneth, which we shall see presently.—ED.]

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1

Tour to 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 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 Dunvegan.

[Here, in the first edition, was a leaf cancelled, which, no doubt, contained some of the original strictures of the "Journal" on Sir Alexander Macdonald's want of hospitality and spirit.-ED.]

2 [Sir James Foulis, of Collinton, Bart. was a man of an ancient family, a good scholar, and a hard student; duly imbued 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 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 Lowlanders whom Highlanders allowed to be well skilled in the Gaelick, an acquaintance which he made late in life. WALTER SCOTT.]

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Dr. Johnson this day endeavoured to obtain some Tour to 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.

Saturday, 4th September.-My endeavours to rouse the English-bred chieftain, in whose house we were, to the feudal and patriarchal feelings, proving ineffectual, Dr. Johnson this morning tried to bring him to our way of thinking. JOHNSON. "Were I in your place, sir, in seven years I would make this an independent island. I would roast oxen whole, and hang out a flag as a signal to the Macdonalds to come and get beef and whisky." Sir Alexander was still starting difficulties. JOHNSON." JOHNSON. "Nay, sir; if you are born to object, I have done with you. Sir, I would have a magazine of arms." SIR ALEXANDER. "They would rust." JOHNSON. "Let there be men to keep them clean. Your ancestors did not use to let their arms rust 1."

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 Gothick, 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, 5th September.—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

[Dr. Johnson seems to have forgotten that a Highlander going armed at this period incurred the penalty of serving as a cominon 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.]

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ED.

Tour to the monument of Sir James Macdonald, which was elegantly executed at Rome, and has an inscription, written by his friend, George Lord Lyttelton: [which, as well as two letters, written by Sir James, in his last illness, to his mother, will be found in the Appendix.]

Dr. Johnson said, the inscription should have been in Latin, as every thing intended to be universal and permanent should be1.

I

This being a beautiful day, my spirits were 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. 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." BOSWELL." It appears to me, sir, to be very difficult to unite a due attention to this world, and that which is to come; for, if we engage eagerly in the affairs of life, we are apt to be totally forgetful of a future state; and, on the other hand, a steady contemplation of the awful concerns of eternity renders all objects here so insignificant, as to make us indifferent and negligent about them." JOHNSON. "Sir, Dr. Cheyne has laid down a rule to himself on this subject, which should be imprinted on every mind: 'To neglect nothing

1

[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-the monument on the field of 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.-En.]