Books: The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

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There was something not quite serene in his humour to night, after
supper; for he spoke of hastening away to London, without stopping
much at Edinburgh. I reminded him, that he had General Oughton and
many others to see. JOHNSON. 'Nay, I shall neither go in jest, nor
stay in jest. I shall do what is fit.' BOSWELL. 'Ay, sir, but all I
desire is, that you will let me tell you when it is fit.' JOHNSON.
'Sir, I shall not consult you.' BOSWELL. 'If you are to run away from
us, as soon as you get loose, we will keep you confined in an island.'
He was, however, on the whole, very good company. Mr Donald M'Leod
expressed very well the gradual impression made by Dr Johnson on those
who are so fortunate as to obtain his acquaintance. 'When you see him
first, you are struck with awful reverence; then you admire him; and
then you love him cordially.'

I read this evening some part of Voltaire's History of the War in
1741, and of Lord Kames against Hereditary Indefeasible Right. This is
a very slight circumstance, with which I should not trouble my reader,
but for the sake of observing, that every man should keep minutes of
whatever he reads. Every circumstance of his studies should be
recorded; what books he has consulted; how much of them he has read;
at what times; how often the same authors; and what opinions he formed
of them, at different periods of his life. Such an account would much
illustrate the history of his mind.

Friday, 1st October

I shewed to Dr Johnson verses in a magazine, on his Dictionary,
composed of uncommon words taken from it:

Little of Anthropopathy has he, &c."

He read a few of them, and said, 'I am not answerable for all the
words in my Dictionary.' I told him, that Garrick kept a book of all
who had either praised or abused him. On the subject of his own
reputation, he said, 'Now that I see it has been so current a topick,
I wish I had done so too; but it could not well be done now, as so
many things are scattered in newspapers.' He said he was angry at a
boy of Oxford, who wrote in his defence against Kenrick; because it
was doing him hurt to answer Kenrick. He was told afterwards, the boy
was to come to him to ask a favour. He first thought to treat him
rudely, on account of his meddling in that business; but then he
considered, he had meant to do him all the service in his power, and
he took another resolution; he told him he would do what he could for
him, and did so, and the boy was satisfied. He said, he did not know
how his pamphlet was done, as he had read very little of it. The boy
made a good figure at Oxford, but died. He remarked, that attacks on
authors did them much service. 'A man who tells me my play is very
bad, is less my enemy than he who lets it die in silence. A man, whose
business it is to be talked of, is much helped at being attacked.'
Garrick, I observed, had been often so helped. JOHNSON. 'Yes, sir;
though Garrick had more opportunities than almost any man, to keep the
publick in mind of him, by exhibiting himself to such numbers, he
would not have had so much reputation, had he not been so much
attacked. Every attack produces a defence; and so attention is
engaged. There is no sport in mere praise, when people are all of a
mind.' BOSWELL. 'Then Hume is not the worse for Seattle's attack?'
JOHNSON. 'He is, because Beattie has confuted him. I do not say, but
that there may be some attacks which will hurt an author. Though Hume
suffered from Beattie, he was the better for other attacks.' (He
certainly could not include in that number those of Dr Adams, and Mr
Tytler.) BOSWELL. 'Goldsmith is the better for attacks.' JOHNSON.
'Yes, sir; but he does not think so yet. When Goldsmith and I
published, each of us something, at the same time, we were given to
understand that we might review each other. Goldsmith was for
accepting the offer. I said, No; set reviewers at defiance. It was
said to old Bentley, upon the attacks against him, "Why, they'll write
you down." "No, sir," he replied; "depend upon it, no man was ever
written down but by himself."' He observed to me afterwards, that the
advantages authours derived from attacks, were chiefly in subjects of
taste, where you cannot confute, as so much may be said on either
side. He told me he did not know who was the authour of the Adventures
of a Guinea, but that the bookseller had sent the first volume to him
in manuscript, to have his opinion if it should be printed; and he
thought it should.

The weather being now somewhat better, Mr James M'Donald, factor to
Sir Alexander M'Donald in Slate, insisted that all the company at
Ostig should go to the house at Armidale, which Sir Alexander had left
having gone with his lady to Edinburgh, and be his guests, till we had
an opportunity of sailing to Mull. We accordingly got there to dinner;
and passed our day very cheerfully, being no less than fourteen in
number.

Saturday, 2d October

Dr Johnson said, that 'a chief and his lady should make their house
like a court. They should have a certain number of the gentlemen's
daughters to receive their education in the family, to learn pastry
and such things from the housekeeper, and manners from my lady. That
was the way in the great families in Wales; at Lady Salisbury's, Mrs
Thrale's grandmother, and at Lady Philips's. I distinguish the
families by the ladies, as I speak of what was properly their
province. There were always six young ladies at Sir John Philips's:
when one was married, her place was filled up. There was a large
school-room, where they learnt needlework and other things.' I
observed, that, at some courts in Germany, there were academies for
the pages, who are the sons of gentlemen, and receive their education
without any expence to their parents. Dr Johnson said, that manners
were best learnt at those courts. 'You are admitted with great
facility to the prince's company, and yet must treat him with much
respect. At a great court, you are at such a distance that you get no
good.' I said, 'Very true: a man sees the court of Versailles, as if
he saw it on a theatre.' He said, 'The best book that ever was written
upon good breeding, Il Corteggiano, by Castiglione, grew up at the
little court of Urbino, and you should read it.' I am glad always to
have his opinion of books. At Mr M'Pherson's, he commended Whitby's
Commentary, and said, he had heard him called rather lax; but he did
not perceive it. He had looked at a novel, called The Man of the
World, at Rasay, but thought there was nothing in it. He said to-day,
while reading my Journal, 'This will be a great treasure to us some
years hence.'

Talking of a very penurious gentleman of our acquaintance, he
observed, that he exceeded L'Avare in the play. I concurred with him,
and remarked that he would do well, if introduced in one of Foote's
farces; that the best way to get it done, would be to bring Foote to
be entertained at his house for a week, and then it would be facit
indignatio. JOHNSON. 'Sir, I wish he had him. I, who have eaten his
bread, will not give him to him, but I should be glad he came honestly
by him.'

He said, he was angry at Thrale, for sitting at General Oglethorpe's
without speaking. He censured a man for degrading himself to a
non-entity. I observed, that Goldsmith was on the other extreme; for
he spoke at all ventures. JOHNSON. 'Yes, sir; Goldsmith, rather than
not speak, will talk of what he knows himself to be ignorant, which
can only end in exposing him.' 'I wonder,' said I, 'if he feels that
he exposes himself. If he was with two taylors...' 'Or with two
founders,' said Dr Johnson, interrupting me, 'he would fall a talking
on the method of making cannon, though both of them would soon see
that he did not know what metal a cannon is made of.' We were very
social and merry in his room this forenoon. In the evening the company
danced as usual. We performed, with much activity, a dance which, I
suppose, the emigration from Sky has occasioned. They call it
'America'. Each of the couples, after the common involutions and
evolutions, successively whirls round in a circle, till all are in
motion; and the dance seems intended to shew how emigration catches,
till a whole neighbourhood is set afloat. Mrs M'Kinnon told me, that
last year when a ship sailed from Portree for America, the people on
shore were almost distracted when they saw their relations go off;
they lay down on the ground, tumbled, and tore the grass with their
teeth. This year there was not a tear shed. The people on shore seemed
to think that they would soon follow. This indifference is a mortal
sign for the country.

We danced to night to the musick of the bagpipe, which made us beat
the ground with 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 gayer exertions were of service to
us. Dr 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!'

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 247 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 M'Leod'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--' (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, 3d October

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 stile 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 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.

Mr Simpson was sanguine in his hopes for a-while, the wind being fair
for us. He said, he would land us at Icolmkill that night. But when
the wind failed, it was resolved we should make for the sound of Mull,
and land in the harbour of Tobermorie. We kept near the five herring
vessels for some time; but afterwards four of them got before us, and
one little wherry fell behind us. When we got in full view of the
point of Ardnamurchan, the wind changed, and was directly against our
getting into the sound. We were then obliged to tack, and get forward
in that tedious manner. As we advanced, the storm grew greater, and
the sea very rough. Col then began to talk of making for Egg, or
Canna, or his own island. Our skipper said, he would get us into the
Sound. Having struggled for this a good while in vain, he said, he
would push forward till we were near the land of Mull, where we might
cast anchor, and lie till the morning; for although, before this,
there had been a good moon, and I had pretty distinctly seen not only
the land of Mull, but up the Sound, and the country of Morven as at
one end of it, the night was now grown very dark. Our crew consisted
of one M'Donald, our skipper, and two sailors, one of whom had but one
eye; Mr Simpson himself, Col, and Hugh M'Donald his servant, all
helped. Simpson said, he would willingly go for Col, if young Col or
his servant would undertake to pilot us to a harbour; but, as the
island is low land, it was dangerous to run upon it in the dark. Col
and his servant appeared a little dubious. The scheme of running for
Canna seemed then to be embraced; but Canna was ten leagues off, all
out of our way; and they were afraid to attempt the harbour of Egg.
All these different plans were sucessively in agitation. The old
skipper still tried to make for the land of Mull, but then it was
considered that there was no place there where we could anchor in
safety. Much time was lost in striving against the storm. At last it
became so rough, and threatened to be so much worse, that Col and his
servant took more courage, and said they would undertake to hit one of
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 started, gave me a good deal of apprehension, from which I
was relieved, when I found we were to run for a harbour before the
wind. But my relief was but of short duration; for I soon heard that
our sails were very bad, and were in danger of being torn in pieces,
in which case we should be driven upon the rocky shore of Col. It was
very dark, and there was a heavy and incessant rain. The sparks of the
burning peat flew so much about, that I dreaded the vessel might take
fire. Then, as Col was a sportman, and had powder on board, I figured
that we might be blown up. Simpson and he appeared a little
frightened, which made me more so; and the perpetual talking, or
rather shouting, which was carried on in Erse, alarmed me still more.
A man is always suspicious of what is saying in an unknown tongue;
and, if fear be his passion at the time, he grows more afraid. Our
vessel often lay so much on one side, that I trembled lest she should
be overset, and indeed they told me afterwards, that they had run her
sometimes to within an inch of the water, so anxious were they to make
what haste they could before the night should be worse. I now saw what
I never saw before, a prodigious sea, with immense billows coming upon
a vessel, so as that it seemed hardly possible to escape. There was
something grandly horrible in the sight. I am glad I have seen it
once. Amidst all these terrifying circumstances, I endeavoured to
compose my mind. It was not easy to do it; for all the stories that I
had heard of the dangerous sailing among the Hebrides, which is
proverbial, came full upon my recollection. When I thought of those
who were dearest to me, and would suffer severely, should I be lost, I
upbraided myself, as not having a sufficient cause for putting myself
in such danger. Piety afforded me comfort; yet I was disturbed by the
objections that have been made against a particular providence, and by
the arguments of those who maintain that it is in vain to hope that
the petitions of an individual, or even of congregations, can have any
influence with the Deity; objections which have been often made, and
which Dr Hawkesworth has lately revived, in his preface to the Voyages
to the 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 fore-castle, 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.

Quo me cunque rapit tempestas, deferor hospes.
[Footnote: For as the tempest drives, I shape my way. FRANCIS.]

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 philosophick 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 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 Campbelltown 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, 4th October

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 publick-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.' [Footnote: This curious
exhibition may perhaps remind some of my readers of the ludicrous
lines, made, during Sir Robert Walpole's administration, on Mr George
(afterwards Lord) Littelton, though the figures of the two personages
must be allowed to be very different:

But who is this astride the pony;
So long, so lean, so lank, so bony
Dat be de great orator, Littletony.]

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 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 dramatick: 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
shews him in his history to have been so bad a man. JOHNSON. 'I do not
myself think 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 Campbell-town
vessel would sail for Mull in a day or two, and therefore we
determined to stay.

Tuesday, 5th October

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 within twenty miles of
London. Then I would tell him, that he may marry one of the Miss
M'Leods, 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.'

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