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ment; though the truth is, Mademoiselle de la Valiere threw herself (but still from sentiment) in the king's way. Our friend chose Vane, who was far from being well-looked, and Sedley, who was so ugly that Charles II. said his brother had her by way of penance."

Mr. Maclaurin's learning and talents enabled him to do his part very well in Dr. Johnson's company. He produced two epitaphs upon his father, the celebrated mathematician One was in English, of which Dr. Johnson did not change one word. In the other, which was in Latin, he made several alterations. In place of the very words of Virgil, "Ubi luctus et pavor et plurima mortis imago," he wrote "Ubi luctus regnant et pavor." He introduced the word prorsus into the line, "Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium," and after "Hujus enim scripta evolve," he added, "Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem corpori caduco superstitem crede," which is quite applicable to Dr. Johnson himself.*

Mr. Murray, advocate, who married a niece of Lord Mansfield's, and is now one of the judges of

Scotland, by the title of Lord Henderland, sat with us a part of the evening, but did not venture to say anything that I remember, though he is certainly possessed of talents which would have enabled him to have shown himself to advantage, if too great anxiety had not prevented him.t

At supper we had Dr. Alexander Webster, who, though not learned, had such a knowledge of mankind, such a fund of information and entertainment, so clear a head and such

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DR. ALEXANDER WEBSTER.

Mr. Maclaurin's epitaph, as engraved on a marble tombstone, in the GrayFriars church-yard. Edinburgh:

Infra situs est

COLIN MACLAURIN,

Mathes. olim in Acad. Edin. Prof.

Electus ipso Newtono suadente.
H. L. P. F.

Non ut nomini paterno consulat,
Nam tali auxilio nil eget;
Sed ut in hoc infelici campo,
Ubi luctus regnant et pavor,

Mortalibus prorsus non absit solatium:
Hujus enim scripta evolve,

Mentemque tantarum rerum capacem

Corpori caduco superstitem crede.

† Lord Henderland died in 1795. His son, John Archibald Murray, is now a

udge of the Court of Session under the title of Lord Murray.-ED.

accommodating manners, that Dr. Johnson found him" Na very agreeable companion.*

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When Dr. Johnson and I were left by ourselves, I read to him my notes of the Opinions of our Judges upon the Questions & &f Literary Property. He did not like them, and said, "They make me think of your judges not with that respect which I should wish to do." To the argument of one of them that there can be no property in blasphemy or nonsense, he answered, "Then your rotten sheep are mine. By that rule, when a man's house falls into decay, he must lose it."+ I mentioned an argument of mine, that literary performances are not taxed; as Churchill says,

"No statesman yet has thought it worth his pains

To tax our labours or excise our brains ;"

and therefore they are not property. "Yet," said he, "we hang a man for stealing a horse, and horses are not taxed." Mr. Pitt has since put an end to that argument.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18.

On this day we set out from Edinburgh. We should gladly have had Mr. Scott to go with us, but he was obliged to return to England I have given a sketch of Dr. Johnson; my readers may wish to know a little of his fellow traveller. Think, then, of a gentleman of ancient blood, the pride of which was his predominant passion. He was then in his thirty-third year, and had been about four years happily mar

* Dr. Webster was minister of the Tolbooth parish in Edinburgh. He originated the Clergy's Widows' Fund, an admirable benevolent scheme, and was the first to draw up a return of the population in Scotland. This he accomplished in 1755. Besides his talents and industry as a calculator and statist, Dr. Webster was a noted evangelical preacher and convivial companion. He was married to a young lady of great beauty, a Miss Erskine, whose favour he had solicited for a friend. The lady frankly told him that he would perhaps come better speed if he were to speak for himself; and on this hint the minister spoke both in prose and verse, and was soon successful. "It is related," says Chambers, "that going home early one morning with strong symptoms of over-indulgence upon him, and being asked by a friend who met him, What the Tolbooth Whigs would say if they were to see him at that moment?' he instantly replied, "They would not believe their own eyes."" This genial, strongminded, and popular churchman lived to the age of seventy-seven, and died January 25th, 1784.-ED.

↑ Lord Chancellor Eldon, it will be recollected, acted upon the opinion of the Scottish Judge, when an injunction was applied for to restrain the circulation of a pirated edition of Lord Byron's "Cain." He refused the injunction until it could be shown that the publisher could maintain an action for the work. "It is true," he admitted, "that this mode of dealing with the work, if it be calculated to produce mischievous effects, opens a door for its dissemination; but the duty of stopping the work does not belong to a Court of Equity, which has no criminal jurisdiction, and cannot punish or check the offence." The owner of the copyright might consider himself entitled to protection until the law had decided that the publication was mischievous. The question has not been agitated since the date of the case brought before Lord Eldon.-ED.

ried His inclination was to be a soldier; but his father, a respectable judge, had pressed him into the profession of the law. He had travelled a good deal, and seen many varieties of human life. He had thought more than anybody supposed, and had a pretty good stock of general learning and knowledge. He had all Dr. Johnson's principles, with some degree of relaxation. He had rather too little than too much prudence; and his imagination being lively, he often said things of which the effect was very different from the intention. He resembled sometimes

"The best good man, with the worst natured muse."*

He cannot deny himself the vanity of finishing with the encomium of Dr. Johnson, whose friendly partiality to the companion of his tour represents him as one "whose acuteness would help my inquiry, and whose gaiety of conversation and civility of manners are sufficient to counteract the inconveniences of travel in countries less hospitable -than we have passed."

Dr. Johnson thought it unnecessary to put himself to the additional expense of bringing with him Francis Barber, his faithful black servant; so we were attended only by my man, Joseph Ritter, a Bohemian, a fine stately fellow above six feet high, who had been over a great part of Europe, and spoke many languages. He was the best servant I ever saw. Let not my readers disdain his introduction, for Dr. Johnson gave him this character: "Sir, he is a civil man and a wise man."

From an erroneous apprehension of violence, Dr. Johnson had pro vided a pair of pistols, some gunpowder, and a quantity of bullets; but upon being assured we should run no risk of meeting any rob bers, he left his arms and ammunition in an open drawer, of which he gave my wife the charge. He also left in that drawer one volume of a pretty full and curious diary of his life of which I have a few fragments, but the book has been destroyed. I wish female curiosity had been strong enough to have had it all transcribed, which might easily have been done; and I should think the theft, being pro bono publico, might have been forgiven. But I may be wrong. My wife told me she never once looked into it. She did not seem quite easy when we left her; but away we went.

Mr. Nairne, advocate, was to go with us as far as St. Andrews. It gives me pleasure that by mentioning his name I connect his title to the just and handsome compliment paid him by Dr. Johnson in

* Rochester of Dorset; yet Dorset's song, "To all you ladies now on land," written at sea the night before an engagement, shows that his muse could be at times propitious. Goldsmith in his "Retaliation" applies the above line, slightly altered, to Caleb Whiteford.-ED.

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his book: "A gentleman who could stay with us only long enough to make us know how much we lost by his leaving us."* When we came to Leith, I talked with perhaps too boasting an air how pretty the Frith of Forth looked; as, indeed, after the prospect from Constantinople, of which I have been told, and that from Naples, which I have seen, I believe the view of that frith and its environs, from the castle-hill of Edinburgh, is the finest prospect in Europe. “Ay," said Dr. Johnson, "that is the state of the world. Water is the same everywhere.

"Una est injusti cærula forma maris.'"+

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I told him the port here was the mouth of the river or water of Leith. "Not Lethe," said Mr. Nairne. 'Why, sir," said Dr. Johnson, "when a Scotchman sets out from this port for England, he forgets his native country."-NAIRNE: "I hope, sir, you will forget England here."-JOHNSON: "Then 'twill still be more Lethe." He observed of the pier or quay, "You have no occasion for so large a one; your trade does not require it. But you are like a shopkeeper who takes a shop, not only for what he has to put in it, but that it may be believed he has a great deal to put into it." It is very true that there is now comparatively little trade upon the eastern coast of Scotland. The riches of Glasgow show how much there is in the west; and perhaps we shall find trade travel westward on a great scale as well as a small.

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We talked of a man's drowning himself. -JOHNSON: "I shall never think it time to make away with myself." I put the case of Eustace Budgell, who was accused of forging a will, and sunk himself in the Thames before the trial of its authenticity came on. 'Suppose, sir," said I, "that a man is absolutely sure that if he lives a few days longer he shall be detected in a fraud, the consequence of which will be utter disgrace and expulsion from society."-JOHNSON: “Then, sir, let him go abroad to a distant country. Let him go to some place where he is not known; don't let him go to the devil, where he is known

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*Mr. Nairne was a younger son of Sir William Nairne of Dunsinnan, Bart. In 1786 he was promoted to the bench and took the title of Lord Dunsinnan. On hearing of the title, the lively Duchess of Gordon is said to have remarked to the Judge, "I am astonished, my lord, for I never knew you had begun sinning." In 1790 the Judge succeeded to the baronetcy, and died at a very advanced age at Dunsinnan House, March 25th, 1811. Lord Dunsinnan was greatly esteemed, and on obtaining possession of the family estate became an ardent and judicious rural improver.-ED.

"Non illic urbes, non tu mirabere silvas;

Una est injusti cærula forma maris. "

OVID. AMOR. Lik. II. El. xi.

Nor groves nor towns the ruthless ocean shows;
Unvaried still its azure surface flows.-BoSWELL.

He then said, “I see a number of people barefooted here; I suppose you all went so before the Union. Boswell, your ancestors went so when they had as much land as your family has now. Yet Auchinleck is the field of stones; there would be bad going barefooted there. The lairds, however, did it." I bought some speldings, fish (generally whitings) salted and dried in a particular manner, being dipped in the sea and dried in the sun, and eaten by the Scots by way of a relish. He had never seen them, though they are sold in London. I insisted on scottifying his palate; but he was very reluctant. With difficulty I prevailed with him to let a bit of one of them lie in his mouth. He did not like it.

In crossing the frith, Dr. Johnson determined that we should land upon Inch Keith. On approaching it, we first observed a high rocky shore. We coasted about, and put into a little bay on the north-west. We clambered up a very steep ascent, on which was very good grass, but rather a profusion of thistles. There were sixteen head of black cattle grazing upon the island. Lord Hailes observed to me that Brantome calls it "L'isle des chevaux," and that it was probably "a safer stable" than many others in his time. The fort, with an inscription on it, "Maria Re. 1504," is strongly built. Dr. Johnson examined it with much attention. He stalked like a giant among the luxuriant thistles and nettles. There are three wells in the island, but we could not find one in the fort. There must probably have been one, though now filled up, as a garrison could not subsist without it. But I have dwelt too long on this little spot. Dr. Johnson afterwards bade me try to write a description of our discovering Inch Keith, in the usual style of travellers, describing fully every particular, stating the grounds on which we concluded that it must have once been inhabited, and introducing many sage reflections, and we should see how a thing might be covered in words so as to induce people to come and survey it. All that was told might be true, and yet in reality there might be nothing to see. He said, "I'd have this island. I'd build a house, make a good landing-place, have a garden, and vines, and all sorts of trees. A rich man of a hospitable turn here would have many visitors from Edinburgh." When we had got into our boat again, he called to me, "Come, now, pay a classical compliment to the island on quitting it." I happened, luckily, in allusion to the beautiful Queen Mary, whose name is upon the fort. to think of what Virgil makes Æneas say on having left the country of his charming Dido.

My friend General Campbell, Governor of Madras, tells me that they maks speldings in the East Indies, pariicularly at Bombay, where they call them bambaloes. — BOSWELL.

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