We got to Fores at night, and found an admirable inn, in which Dr. Johnson was pleased to meet with a landlord, who styled himself "Wine-Cooper, from London."

Friday, Aug. 27.-It was dark when we came to Fores last night; so we did not see what is called King Duncan's monument. I shall now mark some gleanings of Dr. Johnson's conversation. I spoke of Leonidas, and said there were some good passages in it. JOHNSON. "Why, you must seek for them." He said, Paul Whitehead's Manners was a poor performance. Speaking of Derrick, he told me "he had a kindness for him, and had often said, that if his letters had been written by one of a more established name, they would have been thought very pretty letters."

This morning I introduced the subject of the origin of evil. JOHNSON. "Moral evil is occasioned by free will, which implies choice between good and evil. With all the evil that there is, there is no man but would rather be a free agent, than a mere machine without the evil; and what is best for each individual, must be best for the whole. If a man would rather be a machine, I cannot argue with him. He is a different being from me." BOSWELL. “A man, as a machine, may have agreeable sensations; for instance, he may have pleasure in music." JOHNSON. "No, Sir, he cannot have pleasure in music; at least no power of producing music; for he who can produce music may let it alone: he who can play upon a fiddle may break it: such a man is not a machine." This reasoning satisfied me. It is certain, there cannot be a free agent, unless

Then, as Mr. Boswell tells us, pronounced as a dissyllable. Affleck, but now, as it is written, Auchinleck. So I was informed by his lovely, lively, and intelligent granddaughter Teresa Lady Elliot, of Stobbs, who was snatched from her friends by an early death in 1836.-CROKER.

2 Duncan's monument; a huge column on the roadside Dear Fores, more than twenty feet high, erected in commemoration of the final retreat of the Danes from Scotland, and properly called Swene's Stone.- WALTER SCOTT. See ante, p. 221. — C.

In Scotland there is a great deal of preparation before administering the sacrament. The minister of the parish examines the people as to their fitness, and to those of whom

there is the power of being evil as well as good. We must take the inherent possibilities of things into consideration, in our reasonings or conjectures concerning the works of God. We came to Nairn to breakfast. Though a county town and a royal burgh, it is a miserable place. Over the room where we sat, a girl was spinning wool with a great wheel, and singing an Erse song: "I'll warrant you," said Dr. Johnson, "one of the songs of Ossian." He then repeated these lines:

"Verse sweetens toil, however rude the sound. All at her work the village maiden sings; Nor, while she turns the giddy wheel around, Revolves the sad vicissitude of things."

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I thought I had heard these lines before. JOHNSON. "I fancy not, Sir; for they are in a detached poem, the name of which I do not remember, written by one Giffard, a parson."

I expected Mr. Kenneth M'Aulay, the minister of Calder, who published the History of St. Kilda, a book which Dr. Johnson liked, would have met us here, as I had written to him from Aberdeen. But I received a letter from him telling me that he could not leave home, as he was to administer the sacrament the following Sunday, and earnestly requesting to see us at his manse. "We'll "said Dr. Johnson; which we accordingly did. Mrs. M'Aulay received us, and told us her husband was in the church distributing tokens.+ We arrived between twelve and one o'clock, and it was near three before he came to us.

go,

Dr. Johnson thanked him for his book, and said "it is a very pretty piece of topography." M'Aulay did not seem much to mind the compliment. From his conversation, Dr. Johnson was persuaded that he had not written the book which goes under his name. I myself always suspected so; and I have been told it was written by the learned Dr. John M'Pherson of Sky, from the materials collected by M'Aulay. Dr. Johnson said privately to me, "There is a combination in it of which M'Aulay is not capable." However, he was exceedingly hospitable; and, as he obligingly promised us a route for our Tour through the Western Isles, we agreed to stay with him all night.

After dinner, we walked to the old castle of Calder (pronounced Cawder), the Thane of Cawdor's seat. I was sorry that my friend,

he approves gives little pieces of tin, stamped with the name of the parish, as tokens, which they must produce before receiving it. This is a species of priestly power, and sometimes may be abused. I remember a lawsuit brought by a person against his parish minister, for refusing him admission to that sacred ordinance. - BOSWELL.

5 My correspondent, Mr. Macpherson, corroborates the surmise of Boswell and Johnson, and says, that Dr. Macpherson was certainly the author of the book which goes under M'Aulay's name. The doctor, an excellent scholar, was father of my old acquaintance, Sir John Macpherson, sometime governor-general of India, and of Dr. Martin Macpherson, mentioned subsequently. - CROKER, 1835.

this "prosperous gentleman," was not there. The old tower must be of great antiquity. There is a drawbridge-what has been a moat --and an ancient court. There is a hawthorn tree, which rises like a wooden pillar through the rooms of the castle; for, by a strange conceit, the walls have been built round it. The thickness of the walls, the small slanting windows, and a great iron door at the entrance on the second story as you ascend the stairs, all indicate the rude times in which this castle was erected. There were here some large venerable trees. 2

I was afraid of a quarrel between Dr. Johnson and Mr. M'Aulay, who talked slightingly of the lower English clergy. The Doctor gave him a frowning look, and said, "This is a day of novelties: I have seen old trees in Scotland, and I have heard the English clergy treated with disrespect."

I dreaded that a whole evening at Calder manse would be heavy; however, Mr. Grant, an intelligent and well-bred minister in the neighbourhood, was there, and assisted us by his conversation. Dr. Johnson, talking of hereditary occupations in the Highlands, said, "There is no harm in such a custom as this; but it is wrong to enforce it, and oblige a man to be a tailor or a smith, because his father has been one." This custom, however, is not peculiar to our Highlands; it is well known that in India a similar practice prevails.

Mr. M'Aulay began a rhapsody against creeds and confessions. Dr. Johnson showed, that "what he called imposition, was only a voluntary declaration of agreement in certain articles of faith, which a church has a right to require, just as any other society can insist on certain rules being observed by its members. Nobody is compelled to be of the church, as nobody is compelled to enter into a society." This was a very clear and just view of the subject; but M'Aulay could not be driven out of his track. Dr. Johnson said, "Sir, you are a bigot to luxness."

Mr. M'Aulay and I laid the map of Scotland before us; and he pointed out a route for us from Inverness, by Fort Augustus, to Glenelg, sky, Mull, Icolmkill, Lorn, and Inverary, which I wrote down. As my father was to begin the northern circuit about the 18th of

Mr. Campbell of Cawder was elevated to the peerage in 1756, by the title of Lord Cawdor.- LOCKHART.

#Cawder Castle, here described, has been since much da nazed by fire.-- WALTER Scott.

⚫ Johnson in his own Journey says on this subject, "The most learned of the Scottish Doctors would now gladly adinit a form of prayer if the people would endure it. The zeal or rage of congregations has its different degrees.

September, it was necessary for us either to make our tour with great expedition, so as to get to Auchinleck before he set out, or to protract it, so as not to be there till his return, which would be about the 10th of October. By M'Aulay's calculation, we were not to land in Lorn till the 20th of September. I thought that the interruptions by bad days, or by occasional excursions, might make it ten days later; and I thought, too, that we might perhaps go to Benbecula, and visit Clanranald, which would take a week of itself.

Dr. Johnson went up with Mr. Grant to the library, which consisted of a tolerable collection; but the Doctor thought it rather a lady's library, with some Latin books in it by chance, than the library of a clergyman. It had only | two of the Latin fathers, and one of the Greek fathers in Latin. I doubted whether Dr. Johnson would be present at a presbyterian prayer. I told Mr. M'Aulay so, and said that the Doctor might sit in the library while we were at family worship. Mr. M'Aulay said, he would omit it, rather than give Dr. Johnson offence: but I would by no means agree that an excess | of politeness, even to so great a man, should prevent what I esteem as one of the best pious regulations. I know nothing more beneficial, more comfortable, more agreeable, than that the little societies of each family should regu- ; larly assemble, and unite in praise and prayer to our heavenly Father, from whom we daily receive so much good, and may hope for more in a higher state of existence. I mentioned to Dr. Johnson the over-delicate scrupulosity of our host. He said, he had no objection to hear the prayer. This was a pleasing surprise to me; for he refused to go and hear Principal Robertson preach. “I will hear him," said he, "if he will get up into a tree and preach; but I will not give a sanction, by my presence, to a presbyterian assembly."

"Mr. Grant having prayed, Dr. Johnson said, his prayer was a very good one, but objected to his not having introduced the Lord's Prayer. 3 He told us, that an Italian of some note in London said once to him, "We have in our service a prayer called the Pater Noster, which is a very fine composition. I wonder who is the author of it." A singular instance ¦ of ignorance in a man of some literature and general inquiry! *

4

In some parishes the Lord's Prayer is suffered in others, it is still rejected as a form, and he that should make it part of his supplication, would be suspected of heretical pravity "CROKER.

4 Mr. Macpherson thought that this was Baretti - but of the two I should have rather suspected Martinelli (antë, April 15. 1773); but it is hardly credible of any one. — CROKER.

Pritchard. Inverness. Macbeth's Castle..

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Mr. Thrale's Brewery. Peregrinity." Coinage of new Words. -Johnson on Horseback. A Highland Hut. - Fort Augustus.-Governor Trapuud Anoch. - Emigration. Goldsmith. - A Ship a Jail. Glensheal. The Macraas. - The Rattakin. Glenelg. Saturday, Aug. 28.-DR. JOHNSON had brought a Sallust with him in his pocket from Edinburgh. He gave it last night to Mr. M'Aulay's son, a smart young lad about eleven years old. Dr. Johnson had given an account of the education at Oxford, in all its gradations. The [advantage of being a servitor to a youth of little fortune struck Mrs. M'Aulay much. I observed it aloud. Dr. Johnson very handsomely and kindly said, that, if they would send their boy to him, when he was ready for the university, he would get him made a servitor, and perhaps would do more for him. He could not promise to do more; but would undertake for the servitorship.'

I should have mentioned that Mr. White, a Welshman, who has been many years factor (ie, steward) on the estate of Calder, drank tea with us last night; and, upon getting a note from Mr. M'Aulay, asked us to his house. We had not time to accept of his invitation. He gave us a letter of introduction to Mr. | Ferne, master of stores at Fort George. He showed it to me. It recommended "two celebrated gentlemen; no less than Dr. Johnson, author of his Dictionary, and Mr. Boswell, known at Edinburgh by the name of Paoli." He said, he hoped I had no objection to what he had written; if I had, he would alter it. I thought it was a pity to check his effusions, and acquiesced; taking care, however, to seal the letter, that it might not appear that I had read it.

A conversation took place about saying grace at breakfast (as we do in Scotland), as well as at dinner and supper; in which Dr. Johnson said, "It is enough if we have stated seasons of prayer; no matter when. A man may as well pray when he mounts his horse, or a woman when she milks her cow (which Mr. Grant told us is done in the Highlands), as at meals; and custom is to be followed."

Dr. Johnson did not neglect what he had undertaken. By his interest with the Rev. Dr. Adams, master of Pembroke College, Oxford, where he was educated for some Le, be obtained a servitorship for young M'Aulay. But it seems he had other views; and I believe went abroad.BOSWELL

He could not bear to have it thought that, in any instance whatever, the Scots were more pious than the English. I think grace as proper at breakfast as at any other meal. It is the pleasantest meal we have. Dr. Johnson has allowed the peculiar merit of breakfast in Scotland. - BOSWELL.

Bruce, the Abyssinian Traveller, found in the annals of

We proceeded to Fort George. When we came into the square, I sent a soldier with the letter to Mr. Ferne. He came to us immediately, and along with him Major Brewse of the Engineers, pronounced Bruce. He said he believed it was originally the same Norman name with Bruce: that he had dined at a house in London, where were three Bruces, one of the Irish line, one of the Scottish line, and himself of the English line. He said he was shown it in the Herald's Office, spelt fourteen different ways. 3 I told him the different spellings of my name. Dr. Johnson observed,

that there had been great disputes about the spelling of Shakspeare's name; at last it was thought it would be settled by looking at the original copy of his will; but, upon examining it, he was found to have written it himself no less than three different ways. +

4

Mr. Ferne and Major Brewse first carried us to wait on Sir Eyre Coote, whose regiment, the 37th, was lying here, and who then commanded the fort. He asked us to dine with him, which we agreed to do.

Before dinner we examined the fort. The Major explained the fortification to us, and Mr. Ferne gave us an account of the stores. Dr. Johnson talked of the proportions of charcoal and saltpetre in making gunpowder, of granulating it, and of giving it a gloss. He made a very good figure upon these topics. He said to me afterwards, that "he had talked ostentatiously." We reposed ourselves a little in Mr. Ferne's house. He had every thing in neat order as in England; and a tolerable collection of books. I looked into Pennant's Tour in Scotland. He says little of this fort; but that "the barracks, &c. formed several streets." This is aggrandising. Mr. Ferne observed, if he had said they form a square, with a row of buildings before it, he would have given a juster description. Dr. Johnson remarked, "How seldom descriptions correspond with realities; and the reason is, the people do not write them till some time after, and then their imagination has added circumstances."

We talked of Sir Adolphus Oughton. The Major said, he knew a great deal for a military man. JOHNSON. "Sir, yow will find few men, of any profession, who know more. Sir Adolphus is a very extraordinary man; a man of boundless curiosity and unwearied diligence."

I know not how the Major contrived to introduce the contest between Warburton and Lowth. JOHNSON. "Warburton kept his temper all along, while Lowth was in a passion.

that region a king named Brus, which he chooses to consider the genuine orthography of the name. This circumstance occasioned some mirth at the court of Gondar.WALTER SCOTT.

It is now said that this question is settled by an autograph in a volume (Florio) in the British Museum; but though the trustees gave a large sum for the book, and that Sir H. Madden has written a pamphlet to prove the writing genuine, I confess that it appears to me very apocryphal — in fact, as I suspect, another of the many Shakespearian forgeries. CROKER, 1846.

excise here, my old acquaintance at Ayr, who had seen us at the fort, visited us in the evening, and engaged us to dine with him next day, promising to breakfast with us, and take us to the English chapel; so that we were at once commodiously arranged.

Not finding a letter here that I expected, I felt a momentary impatience to be at home. Transient clouds darkened my imagination, and in those clouds I saw events from which I shrunk but a sentence or two of the Rambler's conversation gave me firmness, and I considered that I was upon an expedition for which I had wished for years, and the recollection of which would be a treasure to me for

life.

Sunday, Aug. 29.-Mr. Keith breakfasted with us. Dr. Johnson expatiated rather too strongly upon the benefits derived to Scotland from the Union, and the bad state of our people before it. I am entertained with his copious exaggeration upon that subject; but I am uneasy when people are by, who do not know him as well as I do, and may be apt to think him narrow-minded.' I therefore diverted the subject.

The altar was a bare

The English chapel, to which we went this morning, was but mean. fir table, with a coarse stool for kneeling on, covered with a piece of thick sailcloth doubled, by way of cushion. The congregation was small. Mr. Tait, the clergyman, read prayers very well, though with much of the Scotch accent. He preached on "Love your enemies." It was remarkable that, when talking of the connections amongst men, he said, that some connected themselves with men of distinguished talents; and since they could not equal them, tried to deck themselves with their merit, by being their companions. The sentence was to purpose. It had an odd coincidence with what might be said of my connecting myself

this

with Dr. Johnson.

After church, we walked down to the quay. We then went to Macbeth's castle ? I had a romantic satisfaction in seeing Dr. Johnson actually in it. It perfectly corresponds with Shakspeare's description, which Sir Joshua Reynolds has so happily illustrated, in one of his notes on our immortal poet:

-

"This castle hath a pleasant seat: the air Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself Unto our gentle sense," &c.

Just as we came out of it, a raven perched on one of the chimney-tops, and croaked. Then I repeated

It is remarkable that Dr. Johnson read this gentle remonstrance, and took no notice of it to me. - BOSWELL.

Boswell means the ruins of the royal fortress, which have since been levelled into a bowling-green. It has recently been shown (Trans. Ant. Soc. Scot. vol. iii.), that if Macbeth had a castle in this neighbourhood at all, it must have been at a little distance from these ruins.— CHAMBERS, 1835.

But was not Dr. Johnson's rebuke to the Lady at least a deficient in good breeding?- CROKER.

We dined at Mr. Keith's. Mrs. Keith was rather too attentive to Dr. Johnson, asking him many questions about his drinking only water. He repressed that observation, by saying to took no notice of this." 3 me, "You may remember that Lady Errol

4

Dr. Johnson has the happy art (for which I have heard my father praise the old Earl of Aberdeen) of instructing himself, by making every man he meets tell him something of what he knows best. He led Keith to talk to him of the excise in Scotland; and, in the course of conversation, mentioned that his friend Mr. Thrale, the great brewer, paid twenty thousand pounds a year to the revenue; and that he had barrels above a thousand hogsheads. four casks, each of which holds sixteen hundred

After this there was little conversation that deserves to be remembered. I shall, therefore, here again glean what I have omitted on forthat when he was in Wales, he was shown a mer days. Dr. Gerard, at Aberdeen, told us, valley inhabited by Danes, who still retain their own language, and are quite a distinct true, or all the kingdom must have heard of it. people. Dr. Johnson thought it could not be He said to me, as we travelled, “These people, of a peregrinity in their dialect, which relation Sir, that Gerard talks of, may have somewhat has augmented to a different language." I asked him if peregrinity was an English word. He laughed, and said, "No." I told him this was the second time that I had heard him coin that it would make him fitter for taking off a word. When Foote broke his leg, I observed George Faulkner as Peter Paragraph, poor George having a wooden leg. Dr. Johnson at that time said, "George will rejoice at the de

peditation of Foote;" and when I challenged

and added that he had not made above three that word, laughed, and owned he had made it, or four in his Dictionary.5

I

begged permission to leave him for a little, Having conducted Dr. Johnson to our inn, visits to several good people of Inverness. He that I might run about and pay some short said to me, "You have all the old-fashioned principles, good and bad." I acknowledge I have. That of attention to relations in the remotest degree, or to worthy persons in every state, whom I have once known, I inherit from my father. It gave me much satisfaction to hear every body at Inverness speak of him

4 William Gordon, second Earl of Aberdeen, who died in 1746. CROKER.

5 When upon the subject of this peregrinity he told me some particulars concerning the compilation of his Dictionary, and concerning his throwing off Lord Chesterfield's patronage, of which very erroneous accounts have been circulated. These particulars, with others that he afterwards gave me, as also his celebrated letter to Lord Chesterfield, which he dictated to me, I reserve for the Life. - BOSWELL. See them all, antè, p. 84. et seq. — C.

Χ