1775 After my return to Scotland, I wrote three letters to him, from which I Etat. 66. extract the following paffages: "I have seen Lord Hailes fince I came down. He thinks it wonderful that you are pleased to take so much pains in revifing his Annals.' I told him that you faid you were well rewarded by the entertainment which in reading them.” you had Mr. Donald "There has been a numerous flight of Hebrideans in Edinburgh this fummer, whom I have been happy to entertain at my house. Macqueen and Lord Monboddo fupped with me one evening. in controverting your propofition, that the Gaelick of the Highlands and Isles of Scotland was not written till of late." They joined My mind has been fomewhat dark this fummer. I have need of your warming and vivifying rays; and I hope I fhall have them frequently. I am going to pafs fome time with my father at Auchinleck." "DEAR SIR, TO JAMES BOSWELL, Esq. "I AM now returned from the annual ramble into the middle counties. Having feen nothing that I had not seen before, I have nothing to relate. Time has left that part of the island few antiquities; and commerce has left the people no fingularities. I was glad to go abroad, and, perhaps, glad to come home; which is, in other words, I was, I am afraid, weary of being at home, and weary of being abroad. Is not this the state of life? But, if we confess this weariness, let us not lament it; for all the wife and all the good say, that we may cure it. "For the black fumes which rife in your mind, I can prefcribe nothing but that you disperse them by honest business or innocent pleasure, and by reading fometimes eafy and sometimes ferious. Change of place is useful; and I hope that your refidence at Auchinleck will have many good effects. "That I fhould have given pain to Rafay, I am fincerely forry; and am therefore very much pleased that he is no longer uneafy. He ftill thinks that I have represented him as perfonally giving up the Chieftainfhip. I meant only that it was no longe rcontested between the two houses, and supposed it 7 A very learned minifter in the Isle of Sky, whom both Dr. Johnfon and I have mentioned with regard. fettled 1775. fettled, perhaps, by the ceffion of fome remote generation, in the house of Dunvegan. I am forry the advertisement was not continued for three or four Etat. 66. times in the papers. "That Lord Monboddo and Mr. Macqueen fhould controvert a pofition contrary to the imaginary interest of literary or national prejudice, might be eafily imagined; but of a standing fact there ought to be no controversy: If there are men with tails, catch an homo caudatus; if there was writing of old in the Highlands or Hebrides, in the Erfe language, produce the manuscripts. Where men write, they will write to one another, and fome of their letters, in families ftudious of their ancestry, will be kept. In Wales there are many manuscripts. "I have now three parcels of Lord Hailes's hiftory, which I purpose to return all the next week: that his refpect for my little obfervations should keep his work in fufpenfe, makes one of the evils of my journey. It is in our language, I think, a new mode of history, which tells all that is wanted, and, I fuppofe, all that is known, without laboured fplendour of language, or affected fubtilty of conjecture. The exactnefs of his dates raises my wonder. He feems to have the clofeness of Henault without his constraint. "Mrs. Thrale was fo entertained with your Journal',' that fhe almost read herself blind. She has a great regard for you. "Of Mrs. Bofwell, though fhe knows in her heart that fhe does not love me, I am always glad to hear any good, and hope that she and the little dear ladies will have neither fickness nor any other affliction. But she knows that she does not care what becomes of me, and for that fhe may be fure that I think her very much to blame. "Never, my dear Sir, do you take it into your head to think that I do not love you; you may fettle yourself in full confidence both of my love and my esteem; I love you as a kind man, I value you as a worthy man, and hope in time to reverence you as a man of exemplary piety. I hold you as Hamlet has it, in my heart of heart,' and, therefore, it is little to fay, that I am, Sir, "London, August, 27, 1775. "Your affectionate humble fervant, My "Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides," which that lady read in the original manufcript." "IF in these papers, there is little alteration attempted, do not fuppofe me negligent. I have read them perhaps more closely than the reft; but I find nothing worthy of an objection. "Write to me foon, and write often, and tell me all your honeft heart. "I Now write to you, left in fome of your freaks and humours you fhould fancy yourself neglected. Such fancies I must entreat you never to admit, at least never to indulge, for my regard for you is fo radicated and fixed, that it is become part of my mind, and cannot be effaced but by fome cause uncommonly violent; therefore, whether I write or not, fet your thoughts at reft. I now write to tell you that I fhall not very foon write again, for I am to fet out to-morrow on another journey. "Your friends are all well at Streatham, and in Leicefter-fields. Make my compliments to Mrs. Bofwell, if fhe is in good humour with me. "I am, Sir, &c. "September 14, 1775. SAM. JOHNSON." What he mentions in fuch light terms as, "I am to fet out to-morrow on another journey," I foon afterwards discovered was no less than a tour to France with Mr. and Mrs. Thrale. This was the only time in his life that he went upon the Continent. "MY DEAR SIR, To Dr. SAMUEL JOHNSON. Edinburgh, Oct. 24, 1775. "IF I had not been informed that you were at Paris, you should have had a letter from me by the earliest opportunity, announcing the birth of my Son, on the 9th inftant; I have named him Alexander, after my father. 1775 I now write, as I fuppofe your fellow traveller, Mr. Thrale, will return to Atat. 66. London this week to attend his duty in parliament, and that you will not stay behind him. 'I fend another parcel of Lord Hailes's "Annals." I have undertaken to folicit you for a favour to him, which he thus requests in a letter to me: "I intend foon to give you the Life of Robert Bruce,' which you will be pleased to tranfmit to Dr. Johnson. I wish that you could affist me in a fancy which I have taken, of getting Dr. Johnson to draw a character of Robert Bruce, from the account that I give of that prince. If he finds materials for it in my work, it will be a proof that I have been fortunate in felecting the moft ftriking incidents.' "I fuppofe by The Life of Robert Bruce,' his Lordship means that part of his 'Annals' which relates the history of that prince, and not a separate work. "Shall we have " A Journey to Paris" from you in the winter? You will, I hope, at any rate be kind enough to give me fome account of your French travels very foon, for I am very impatient. What a different fcene have you viewed this autumn, from that which you viewed in autumn 1773! I ever am, my dear Sir, Your much obliged, and affectionate humble fervant, "DEAR SIR, To JAMES BOSWELL, Efq. "I AM glad that the young Laird is born, and an end, as I hope, put to the only difference that you can ever have with Mrs. Bofwell'. I know that she does not love me, but I intend to perfift in, wishing her well till I get the better of her. "Paris is, indeed, a place very different from the Hebrides, but it is to a hafty traveller not fo fertile of novelty, nor affords so many opportunities of remark. I cannot pretend to tell the publick any thing of a place better known to many of my readers than to myfelf. We can talk of it when we meet. "I shall go next week to Streatham, from whence I purpose to fend a parcel of the History' every poft. Concerning the character of Bruce, Í This alludes to my old feudal principle of preferring male to female fucceffion. 1775. can only fay, that I do not fee any great reason for writing it, but I fhall not Etat. 66. eafily deny what Lord Hailes and you concur in defiring. "I have been remarkably healthy all the journey, and hope you and your family have known only that trouble and danger which has fo happily terminated. Among all the congratulations that you may receive, I hope you believe none more warm or fincere, than thofe of, dear Sir, "Your most affectionate, " November, 16, 1775. SAM. JOHNSON." To Mrs. LucY PORTER, in Lichfield.*. "DEAR MADAM, "THIS week I came home from Paris. I have brought you a: little box, which I thought pretty; but I know not whether it is properly a fnuff-box, or a box for fome other ufe. I will fend it, when I can find an opportunity. I have been through the whole journey remarkably well. My fellow-travellers were the fame whom you faw at Lichfield, only we took Baretti with us. Paris is not fo fine a place as you would expect. The palaces and churches, however, are very splendid and magnificent; and what would please you, there are many very fine pictures; but I do not think their way of life commodious or pleasant.. "Let me know how your health has been all this while.. I hope the fine fummer has given you strength fufficient to encounter the winter. "Make my compliments to all my friends; and, if your fingers will let you, write to me, or let your maid write, if it be troublesome to you. I am, dear Madam, Your most affectionate humble fervant, . Nov. 16, 1775. To the fame! SAM. JOHNSON." "DEAR MADAM, "SOME weeks ago I wrote to you, to tell you that I was juft come home from a ramble, and hoped that I should have heard from you. I am afraid winter has laid hold on your fingers, and hinders you from writing. However, let somebody write, if you cannot, and tell me how you do, and a * There can be no doubt that many years previous to 1775, he correfponded with this lady, who was his step-daughter, but none of his earlier letters to her have been preserved. |